UC-NRLF 


*b  503  am 


Wife  Stuornts'  Srrtrs  of  Hattn  Classics 


THE    PRIVATE    LIFE    OF 
THE  ROMANS 


WITH  NUMEROUS  ILLUSTRATIONS 


BY 

HARRIET   WATERS   PRESTON 

AND 

LOUISE   DODGE 


OF  TEE 

"niversit: 
leach,  shewell.  &  sanborn 

BOSTON      NEW   YORK      CHICAGO 


Q 


Copyright,  1893, 
By  LEACH,  SHEWELL,   &  SANBORN. 

73V  zf 


Nortooot)  ^rrass : 

J,  S.  Cushing  &.  Co.  —  Berwick  &  Smith. 

Boston,  Mass.,  U.S.A. 


TABLE   OF   CONTENTS. 


-*o*- 


A-  PAGE 


t  m   The  Family .1 

II. 
.  The  House  and  Every-day  Life 28 

III. 
•  Children,  Slaves,  GVests,  Clients,  Freedmen  ....       57 

IV. 
%  Food  and  Clothing 77 

V. 

Agriculture 105 

VI. 

Travel,  Transportation,  •  Amusements 135 

Tables  of  Weights,  Measures,  etc *  159 

Index 105 


m 


73t£9 


INTRODUCTORY. 


The  following  brief  account  of  the  private  manners  and 
customs  of  the  ancient  Romans,  their  families  and  homes,  their 
meat,  drink,  and  clothing,  their  means  of  culture,  amusement, 
etc.,  has  been  compiled,  for  the  most  part,  from  the  latest 
German  authorities  on  this  interesting  subject.  It  is  especially 
based  on  the  encyclopedic  work  of  Marquardt  and  Mommsen, 
Handbuch  der  Romischen  A  Iterthumer :  Siebenter  Band,  Priuadeben 
der  Romer,  von  Joachim  Marquardt.  2te  Auflage.  Leipzig, 
S.  Hirzel,  1886. 

For  illustrations  of  the  imperial  period,  constant  reference  has 
also  been  made  to  the  more  discursive  but  always  striking  and 
suggestive  work  of  Prof.  Ludwig  Friedl'ander,  Darstellung  aus 
der  Sittengeschichte  Roms,  in  der  Zeit  von  August  bis  ziwi  Ausgang 
der  Antonine.  Fiinfte  neu  bearbeitete  und  vermehrte  Auflage. 
Leipzig,  S.  Hirzel,  1881. 

The  Gallus  of  Prof.  W.  A.  Becker  remains,  as  it  has  always 
been  since  its  first  appearance  in  1838,  an  indispensable  aid  to 
one  who  would  form  a  reasonably  complete  mental  picture  of 
the  domestic  life  of  classical  antiquity. 

Great  condensation  of  material  has,  of  course,  been  necessary ; 
the  endeavor  of  the  compilers  has  been  to  seize  the  salient 
points,  and  to  furnish,  within  the  prescribed  limit  of  the 
volumes  constituting  this  series,  at  least  a  fairly  complete  out- 
line of  a  well-nigh  inexhaustible  subject. 

To  facilitate  the  student's  pronunciation  of  the  many  un- 
familiar Latin  names  of  objects  which  have  necessarily  been 

v 


Vi  INTRODUCTORY. 

inserted  in  the  text,  the  quantity  of  all  the  long  vowels  has  been 
so  marked. 

The  illustrations  have  been  taken  chiefly  from  Rich's  Dic- 
tionary of  classical  antiquities:  a  few  from  Baumeister,  Seyff'ert- 
Nettleship,  Becker,  and  other  authors;  but  the  source  of  each 
will  generally  be  found  indicated  under  the  illustration  itself. 

An  appendix  has  also  been  added  containing  tables  of  Latin 
weights  and  measures,  and  a  Roman  calendar ;  with  approxi- 
mate reductions  to  American  measures  and  values,  and  to  the 
modern  method  of  computing  time. 

Wherever  Latin  authors  have  been  directly  cited  by  our 
German  authorities,  the  references  have  been  carefullv  verified. 
In  some  few  cases  other  quotations,  which  appeared  to  ourselves 
peculiarly  obvious  and  interesting,  have  been  added;  but  our 
aim  has  been  to  insert  in  the  present  little  volume  just  so  many 
references  to  original  texts  as  might  serve  to  stimulate  the 
literary  curiosity  of  a  youthful  reader,  yet  not  enough  to  be- 
wilder and  overpower  him. 

The  chapter  on  agriculture  alone  has  been  compiled  almost 
entirely  from  original  sources,  —  Cato,  Columella,  Varro,  and 
Virgil,  —  aided  by  a  considerable  familiarity  with  the  rural  life 
of  modern  Italy,  and  those  farming  processes  of  to-day,  many 
of  which  differ  so  very  little  in  essentials  from  those  of  Roman 
times. 

H.  W.  P. 
L.  P.  D. 

London,  November,  189,".. 


X 


ALIFOR 


THE 

PRIVATE   LIFE    OF   THE   ROMANS. 


CHAPTER    I. 

THE  FAMILY. 


The  first  step  toward  making  real  to  ourselves  the 
life  of  the  great  Roman  people  must  be  to  get  a  clear 
idea  of  the  constitution  of  the  family,  and  the  relation 
and  obligations  of  its  members  to  one  another.  The 
family  bond,  in  the  eyes  of  a  Roman  of  the  best  period, 
was  a  peculiarly  strong  and  sacred  one,  and  the  worship 
of  the  lares,  or  guardian  spirits  of  the  home  —  often  con- 
ceived as  the  souls  of  departed  kindred  —  and  of  the 
penates,  or  great  gods,  in  their  relation  to  private  and 
family  affairs,  was  the  most  vital  and  heartfelt  part  of 
his  religion.  The  family  was  regarded  as  both  the  germ 
and  image  of  the  state.  To  furnish  the  state  with 
citizens  was  a  man's  first  duty.  To  be  the  last  of  one's 
line  was  a  calamity  and  a  curse.  Family  life,  more  espe- 
cially rural  family  life,  in  the  early  days  of  the  Roman 
commonwealth  was  plain  and  stern  and  pure,  offering 
singular  resemblances,  in  its  spirit  and  some  of  its 
aspects,  to  the  life  upon  their  lonely  farms  of  the  first 
Puritan  settlers  of  Xew  England. 


2  THE   PRIVATE   LIFE   OF   THE   ROMANS. 

The  father  of  the  family  was  its  sovereign  in  his  own 
right  (sul  iuris).  Wife,  children,  and  slaves  were  his 
subjects.  The  legal  power  of  the  husband  over  the  wife 
was  expressed  by  the  term  manus.  The  bride  of  those 
primitive  times  was  merely  transferred  from  her  father's 
rule  to  that  of  her  husband  :  she  ranked  thenceforth  as 
a  daughter  of  her  husband's  house  ;  she  came  in  manum 
suam,  —  "into  his  hand."1  Her  property  became  his. 
He  might  not  sell,  and,  so  long  as  she  remained  faithful, 
he  might  not  slay  her,  but  these  were  the  only  limits  to 
his  power. 

The  patria  2yotestds,  or  authority  of  the  father  over  his 
children,  was  even  more  absolute,  for  it  included  far  down 
into  historic  times  the  legal  right  to  sell,  to  repudiate,  or, 
in  the  case  of  deformed  infants  and  superfluous  daugh- 
ters, to  destroy  his  offspring  at  birth.  When  the  father 
lifted  the  new-born  infant  in  his  arms  (tollere),  it  was  a 
sign  that  he  acknowledged  and  would  rear  and  provide 
for  it.  /The  power  of  the  father  over  his  sons  and  their 
children  ceased  only  when  he  himself  died  or  lost  his 
rights  of  Roman  citizenship,  —  a  forfeiture  which  the 
Italians  still  express  by  the  stern  phrase  morte  civile,  or 
civil  death.  The  father's  power  over  his  daughters  ended 
when  they  married  or  took  vestal  vows.  The  son  also 
might  be  emancipated  by  becoming  a  flcimen,  or  priest, 
and  in  certain  cases  with  tedious  and  complicated  cere- 
monies, by  mutual  agreement  between  parent  and  child. 

1  The  word  manus  was  at  first  applied  exclusively  to  the  power 
of  the  paterfamilias  over  the  females  of  his  own  family.  After- 
wards it  came  to  be  used  more  loosely,  and  was  often  confounded 
with  potestus,  his  power  over  children  and  slaves  ;  as  we  see  from 
the  words  emancipatio  and  manumissio. 


THE    FAMILY.  3 

Livy,1  gives  an  instance  in  the  year  358  b.c.J  during  the 
consulate  of  C.  Marcius  and  Cn.  Manlius,  of  a  crushing 
fine  imposed  upon  a  father  who  had  endeavored  to  evade 
the  law  forbidding  a  citizen  to  hold  more  than  five  hun- 
dred iugera2  of  land,  by  emancipating  his  son  and  then 
sharing  with  him  a  thousand  iugexa. 

The  authority  of  the  master  over  his  slaves,  or  dominica 
potestas,  was  also  absolute ;  but  it  included,  in  theory  at 
least,  his  full  recognition  of  these  as  members  of  the 
family,  and  of  his  duties  to  them  as  such. 

Every  member  of  a  Roman  household,  male  or  female, 
bond  or  free,  appears  to  have  had,  even  in  the  earliest 
times,  the  right  to  at  least  two  names,  his  or  her  own 
individual  appellation,  and  the  genitive  of  the  name  of 
the  sovereign  father,  husband,  or  master,  as  Marcus 
McircJ,  Marcus  son  of  Marcus,  Lima  August!,  Livia 
daughter  of  Augustus,  Marcipor,  i.e.  Morel  puer,  Marcus's 
boy,  precisely  in  the  sense  in  which  the  owner  of  negro 
slaves  but  lately  used  the  same  term.  /  Later,  but  still 
early  in  republican  times,  we  find  the  free-born  Roman 
male  possessed  of  three  names :  his  own  individual  first 
name,  or  pmenomen,  the  name  of  the  gens,  or  great  clan, 
to  which  he  belonged,  the  nomen  proprium,  or  nbmen 
gentilieium.  and  a  cognomen,  or  surname,  which  more 
narrowly  defined  his  family,  that  is  to  say,  the  particu- 
lar branch  or  division  of  the  tribe  from  which  he  sprung; 
for  instance,  Marcus  Tullius  Cicero,  that  is  Marcus  of 
the  Tullian  clan,  and  the  family  of  the  Cicerones  — 
-originally  chick-pea  or  vetch-growers. 

A  boy-infant  received  his  praenomen  on  the  ninth  day 
after  birth  (a  girl  on  the  eighth)  ;  the  child  was  at  the 

1  Liv.  vii.  16.  2  gee  table. 


4  THE   PRIVATE   LIFE   OF   THE   ROMANS. 

same  time  purified  by  lustration,  which  included  sprink- 
ling with  water  by  means  of  a  branch  of  laurel  or  olive, 
the  burning  of  incense,  and  the  offering  of  sacrifice,  a 
ceremony  plainly  pointing  to  the  rite  of  baptism.  But 
the  name  thus  given  was  not  legally  bestowed,  nor  pub- 
licly recorded  in  the  archives,  until  the  boy  received  the 
toga  virllis  at  the  age  of  sixteen  or  seventeen,  and  was 
publicly  proclaimed  a  citizen  of  the  commonwealth. 

The  fact  that  the  iiomen  gentilicium,  or  name  of  the 
great  patrician  clan,  belonged  equally  to  the  women, 
freedmen,  and  clients  of  a  house,  led  to  a  great  restric- 
tion in  the  first  names  bestowed  at  lustration  upon  its 
freeborn  sons."  At  no  period  were  there  more  than  thirty 
in  use;  these,  in  the  time  of  Sulla,  had  dwindled  to 
eighteen,  and  even  these  were  distributed  by  fixed  cus- 
tom among  the  different  clans.  Thus  Cseso  belonged 
exclusively  to  the  Fabii  and  Qumctilii,  Appius,  and  Deci- 
nius  to  the  Claudii,  Mamercus  to  the  iEmilii,  and  so  on. 
After  plebeians  were  made  eligible  to  the  consulate  in 
367  b.c,  and  subsequently  to  all  the  curule  magistracies, 
the  descendants  of  plebeians,  who  had  held  any  curule 
office  formed  a  class  called  udbiles  or  "known  men"  (like 
the  Scottish  kent  folk).  They  were  thus  distinguished 
from  the  igndbiles,  those  whose  ancestors  had  never  held 
office,  while  yet  they  did  not  quite  attain  to  the  considr 
eration  of  the  patricians,  or  men  of  high  descent.  They 
acquired  the  right,  however,  on  which  if  possible  they 
laid  more  stress  than  the  patricians  themselves,  of  set- 
ting up  in  their  dwellings  the  images  of  their  ancestors, 
beginning  with  the  first  great  office-holder,1  and,  in 
natural  emulation  of  the  patricians,  they  became  quite 

1  This  man  was  neither  nobilis  nor  Ignobilis,  but  novus  homo. 


THE   FAMILY.  5 

as  strenuous  as  they  in  limiting  the  number  of  first 
names  which  they  bestowed  upon  their  sons  in  infancy. 
Thus  the  Domitii  were  always  G-naeus  or  Lucius;  the 
Bibuli,  G-aius,  Lucius,  or  Marcus;  and  so  on.  The 
cognomen,  or  surname,  usually  in  the  first  instance  a 
kind  of  nickname  bestowed  on  account  of  some  personal 
peculiarity,  like  Xaso,  the  long-nosed  man,  Torquatus, 
the  man  with  a  torque  or  necklace,  came  to  be  specially 
jed  by  the  patricians  as  indicating  in  most  cases  an 
earlierNjriffin  than  that  of  the  official  nobility.  On  the 
other  hand,  the  custom  came  in  of  taking  new  surnames 
to  commemorate  some  special  warlike  achievement,  like 
Africanus  or  Macedonicus, — this  was  called  cognomen  ex 
virtute,  —  or  else  upon  adoption,  when  to.  the  three  names 
of  the  adoptive  father  was  added  the  gentile  name  of 
the  child  adopted,  with  the  suffix  anus.  Thus  Publius 
Cornelius  Scipio,  iEmilianus  was  the  son  of  Lucius 
iEmilius  Publius,  adopted  by  Publius  Cornelius  Scipio. 
A  daughter's  name  in  early  Roman,  as  in  modern  times, 
consisted  of  her  father's  gentile  name  (nomen  gentllicium), 
that  is  to  say,  of  the  feminine  form  of  it,  preceded  by  a 
first  name  of  her  own,  —  like  Paula  Cornelia,  Paula  of 
the  Cornelian  gens;  and  so  long  as  the  old-fashioned 
marriage  rites  remained  in  force,  by  virtue  of  which  the 
wife  became  the  adopted  child  of  her  husband's  house, 
she  assumed  at  marriage  his  gentile  name,  as  women  still 
do  in  Christian  countries.  But  this  did  not  always,  or 
even  often,  imply  a  change,  because  the  ancient  marriages 
were  usually  made  between  members  of  the  same  gens; 
and  in  later  times,  when  matrimony  had  become  rather 
a  civil  contract  than  a  religious  rite,  the  wife  cer- 
tainly did  not  take  her  husband's  name.     She  was  known 


6  THE   PRIVATE   LIFE   OF   THE   ROMANS. 

by  that  of  her  father's  gens,  as  Calpurnia,  the  wife  of 
Caesar,  who  was  daughter  of  L.  Calpurnius  Piso  Caeso- 
ninus  (a  member  of  the  Caesonia  gens,  adopted  by  L.  Cal- 
purnius Piso) ;  or  as  Terentia,  wife  of  Cicero.  Even  her 
own  individual  first  name  was  little  used,  until  a  fashion 
came  up,  in  the  time  of  the  empire,  of  appending  it  like 
a  cognomen  to  her  own  gentile  name,  as  Vespasia  Polla, 
Vitellia  liufilla.  Sometimes,  too,  as  a  matter  of  family 
pride,  a  woman  used  both  the  nomen  and  cognomen  of 
her  father,  like  Caecilia  Metella;  or  one  name  derived 
from  the  father  and  one  from  the  mother,  like  Annia 
Faustina.  Only  in  late  imperial  times,  did  women  of 
high  distinction  aspire  to  the  use  of  three  names,  as 
Furia  Sabina  Tranquillina. 

A  slave,  as  lias  been  said,  was  originally  known  only  as 
his  master's  "  boy, "  —  Marcipor,  Olipor.  The  elder  Pliny  l 
supposes  this  custom  to  date  from  the  time  when  men  as 
a  rule  had  only  one  slave.  It  lasted,  however,  down  to 
the  last  days  of  the  republic,  and  the  freedman  who  took 
his  master's  first  and  gentile  name  must  needs  append 
to  it  the  name  of  his  own  servitude,  as  Aulus  Caecilius 
Oliper;  that  is,  Aulus,  formerly  the  boy  of  Aulus  Caecilius. 
When,  however,  the  number  of  slaves  had  multiplied 
enormously,  by  conquest  as  well  as  by  natural  increase, 
it  became  necessary  to  give  individual  names  to  slaves, 
and  these  were  often  royal  or  mythological  names,  as 
Pharnaces,  Mithridates,  bestowed  half. in  derision,  like 
the  "Caesar"  and  "Pompey"  of  the  plantation  hand;  or 
they  indicated  the  place  from  which  the  slave  had  come, 
like  Ephesius.  Now,  too,  the  legal  term  servus  replaced 
the  homely  and  friendly  puer,  and  Pharnaces,  the  slave  of 

1  Hist.  Nat.  xxxiii.  26. 


THE   FAMILY.  i 

Publius  Egnatius,  was  written  Phcmiaces  Egnatii  Publii 
Servus.  When  a  slave  passed  by  sale  or  inheritance  to 
a  new  owner,  he  or  she  added  to  the  name  of  the  latter 
the  cognomen  of  the  former  owner  with  the  suffix  anus 
or  ana.  Thus  Anna  Livise  Msecenatiana  was  Anna,  the 
slave  of  Livia,  formerly  owned  by  Maecenas.  It  then 
became  customary  for  the  freedman  to  take  upon  his 
emancipation  both  the  nomen  and  praenomen  of  his  former 
master,  or  occasionally,  in  the  case  of  a  highly  prized 
slave,  the  latter  paid  his  former  servant  the  compliment 
of  naming  him  after  some  friend  of  his  own.  Thus 
Cicero  when  he  emancipated  Dionysius,  the  tutor  of  his 
son,  called  him  not  Marcus  Tullius  Dionysius,  but  Mar- 
cus Pomponius  Dionysius,  after  his  dearly  beloved  Pom- 
ponius  Atticus,  who  was  also  very  fond  of  the  accomplished 
slave.  The  freedmen  of  a  woman  usually  took  the  two 
names  of  their  mistress's  father,  as  Marcus  Livius 
Augustse  Libertus  Isniarus. 

All  these  rules,  however,  remained  strictly  in  force  only 
so  long  as  the  family  bond  continued  to  be  virtually  indis- 
soluble, and  the  paterfamilias  was  the  undisputed  master 
of  his  household.  In  the  last  days  of  the  republic,  with 
the  almost  unbounded  facilities  for  divorce,  the  great 
increase  in  the  number  of  freedmen,  and  the  extension  of 
the  rights  of  Roman  citizenship  to  various  classes  of 
foreigners,  great  irregularities  in  the  matter  of  names 
came  in,  affecting  alike  their  inheritance,  their  adoption, 
and  their  arrangement.  The  cognomina  of  distinguished 
men  were  used  as  praenomlna,  like  Africanus  Fabius 
Maximus,  Consul  in  10  b.c.  ;  or  the  several  sons  of  one 
father  would  all  receive  the  same  praenomen,  but  would 
be  distinguished  by  different  cognomina,   in  which  case 


8  THE    PRIVATE   LIFE   OF   THE   ROMANS. 

the  eldest  son  usually  bore  his  father's  cognomen  un- 
changed, while  the  second  son  took  his  mother's  gentile 
name  with  the  suffix  anus.  Thus  Flavius  Sabinus  had 
two  sons  by  his  wife  Vespasia  Folia.  The  elder  was 
called  Sabinus  after  his  father,  the  younger  Vespasianus 
after  his  mother.  Further  confusion  ensued  from  the 
increasing  frequency  of  adoption  for  political  and  othei 
purposes,  and  from  the  very  natural  desire  of  the  descend- 
ants of  a  freedman  to  get  rid  of  the  name  which  was  the 
badge  of  ancestral  servitude.  Novl  homines,  too,  liked  to 
assume  names  with  historic  associations,  as  the  parvenu 
of  to-day  orders  a  coat-of-arms ;  or  to  make  up  in  the  num- 
ber of  their  appellations  what  these  lacked  in  dignity, 
in  so  much  that  we  find  persons  in  imperial  times  who 
claimed  as  many  as  thirty  names,  one  of  which  would 
have  to  be  selected  for  daily  use.  Finally,  the  intro- 
duction of  Christianity  brought  in  names  of  the  order  of 
Fraise-Gocl-Barebones,  Deogratias,  Quidvultcleus,  which 
were  declined  like  regular  Latin  proper  names  of  the 
same  terminations. 

A  iustum  matrimonium,  or  true  marriage,  could  only  be 
made  between  Roman  citizens  (for  the  woman  alsc 
reckoned  as  a  clvis  liomana)  of  the  legal  age,  not  too 
nearly  related,  and  with  the  full  approbation  of  the  fathers 
who  might  hold  patria  potestds  over  the  bridal  pair.  The 
marriageable  age  was  fixed  by  law  at  fourteen  for  the 
husband  and  twelve  for  the  wife,  but  practically  it  was 
later,  for  the  boy  was  never  married  before  he  had  re- 
ceived the  gown  of  manhood,  and  the  girl  but  seldom 
before  fifteen  or  sixteen.  The  prohibited  degrees  of 
relationship  originally  included  all  within  the  sixth;  that 
is  to  say,  all  for  which  the  Latin  language  had  names,  and 


THE   FAMILY.  0 

all  which   had   the   ius   oscull,  or  within  which  it  was 
allowable  for  men  and  women  to  kiss. 

Such  rigid  restrictions  were  especially  needful  in  those 
early  times,  when  it  was  so  unusual  for  a  man  not  to  marry 
in  his  gens,  or  clan,  that  he  who  failed  to  do  so  was 
said  to  enubere,  —  to  marry  out,  as  a  Quaker  may  marry 
out  of  meeting.  As  time  went  on,  the  rules  relating 
to  the  marriage  of  kindred  were  much  relaxed,  and  we 
gather  from  Livy1  that  after  the  time  of  the  Second 
Punic  war,  relatives  of  the  fourth  degree,  that  is  to 
say  consobrini,  or  cousins  german,  might  marry.  When 
in  the  year  49  a.d.  the  Senate  sanctioned  the  union  of 
the  Emperor  Claudius  with  Agrippina,  the  daughter  of 
his  brother  G-ermanicus,  marriages  in  the  third  degree 
became  lawful ;  but  with  these  restrictions,  that  a  woman 
might  marry  her  paternal  uncle  (patruus),  but  not  her 
maternal  (avunculus),  while  a  man  might  never  marry  his 
aunt,  whether  on  the  father's  side  (amita),  or  on  the 
mother's  (matertera). 

The  marriage  contracted  under  these  conditions  was  of 
two  kinds :  the  bride  either  came  into  her  husband's  manus, 
or  she  did  not.  In  the  first  instance  she  passed  com- 
pletely out  of  her  father's  family  and  rule  into  that  of 
her  husband;  she  surrendered  her  patrimony  and  became 
one  of  her  husband's  legal  heirs.  In  the  second,  she 
remained  under  the  rule  (in  potestate)  of  her  father, 
and  retained  her  own  property  and  her  right  of  inher- 
itance in  his  estate.  In  the  former  case,  according  to 
Cicero,2  she  became  a  materfamilias,  in  the  latter  she  was 
simply  an  uxor. 

Marriage  with  manus  was  itself  of  three  kinds.     The 
1  Liv.  xlii.  34.  2.  2  cic.  Top.  iii.  14. 


10  THE    PRIVATE    LIFE   OF    THE    ROMANS. 

most  solemn  and  stately,  and  by  far  the  most  aristocratic, 
was  the  marriage  by  confarreatio,  which  may  be  compared 
for  pomp  of  ceremonial  to  a  Catholic  wedding  with  pon- 
tifical high  mass  in  a  cathedral  or  collegiate  church. 
Beside  the  private  offerings  and  taking  of  auspices,  which 
were  seldom  omitted  in  any  sort  of  legal  marriage,  this 
included  a  public  ceremony  conducted  by  the  Pontifex 
Maximus  and  the  Flamen  Dialis  in  the  presence  of  at 
least  ten  witnesses,  and  it  took  its  name  from  the  farreum 
Ubum,  or  cake  of  spelt-flour,  which  was  carried  before  the 
newly  married  pair  on  their  return  from  the  wedding 
ceremony  and  subsequently  broken  and  eaten  between 
them. 

There  remained  marriage  by  usus,  in  virtue  of  which 
the  wife  came  into  her  husband's  maims  by  the  mutual 
consent  of  both  parties,  after  they  had  lived  together  for 
a  year  without  interruption  of  more  than  three  sunaes- 
sive  days;  and  the  marriage  by  coemptio,  which,  though 
usually  accompanied  by  domestic  religious  rites,  as  p 
modern  wedding  may  be  solemnized  by  a  clergyman  in  a 
private  house,  must  still  be  looked  upon  in  the  light  of 
a  civil  contract.  In  this  case,  the  father  went  through  a 
form  of  emancipating  his  daughter,  in  favor  of  her  futi :.■•<■• 
husband,  after  which  the  girl  made  declaration  that  sbe 
entered  into  the  union  of  her  own  free  will. 

Confarreatio  was  the  oldest  as  well  as  the  most  dignified 
and  imposing  of  the  Roman  marriage  rites.  It  was  long 
the  exclusive  privilege  of  the  patricians,  and  none  but 
the  children  of  such  a  marriage  could  ever  become  flamines 
muidres,  that  is,  priests  of  Jove,  Mars,  or  Quirinus,  or 
vestal  virgins.  Naturally,  thdvfore,  marriage  by  con- 
farreatio  would  be  the  favorite  form  in  the  highest  sociil 


f 

THE   FAMILY.  11 

circles.  Marriage  by  usus,  as  the  simplest  and  least 
costly,  would  prevail,  roughly  speaking,  among  the  ple- 
beians, while  the  civil  marriage  by  co'emptio  was  the  one 
commonly  practised  by  the  intermediate  classes.  But  it 
is  plain,  that  with  the  loosening  of  the-  marriage  tie,  and 
the  progress  of  what  would  now  be  called  "advanced 
ideas,"  the  solemn  and  ceremonious  marriage  by  confar- 
reatio  went  more  and  more  out  of  fashion;  so  that  Tacitus 
says1  that  in  the  time  of  Tiberius  (a.d.  14-37)  it  had 
become  a  matter  of  some  difficulty  to  find  men  qualified 
by  their  birth  to  fill  the  vacancies  in  the  great  priestly 
offices. 

Marriage  was  regularly  preceded  by  betrothal  rites 
(sponsalia),  and  children  might  be  betrothed  by  their 
parents  long  before  they  were  of  marriageable  age.  The 
engagement  might  be  broken  by  either  party  or  by  the 
guardians  of  either,  without  involving  any  legal  penalty, 
but  while  it  lasted  it  imposed  certain  restrictions. 
Betrothed  people  might  not  testify  against  one  another 
in  the  courts,  and  a  son  might  not  marry  his  father's 
betrothed  bride.  The  ceremony  of  betrothal  was  at  first 
very  simple.  The  amount  of  the  girl's  dowry  having 
been  agreed  upon,  the  boy  bridegroom  gave  his  bride  a 
piece  of  money  or  a  ring,  which  she  wore  upon  her  third 
finger.  It  was  only  in  the  later  imperial  times  that 
written  marriage  contracts  were  customary,  and  the  cere- 
mony took  place  in  the  presence  of  invited  guests  and 
was  followed  by  a  banquet.  There  were  very  strong 
restrictions  touching  the  days  of  the  year  when  weddings 
might  take  place.  ,-  The  whole  month  of  3Iay  was  forbid- 
den ard  the  firs,    half  of  June,  on  account  of  the  great 

1  Tac.  Ann.  iv.  16. 


<B> 


THE    PRIVATE   LIFE    OF   THE   ROMANS. 


number  of  religious  festivals  occurring  in  the  early  sum- 
mer and  requiring  the  constant  attendance  of  the  priests. 
Nor  could  marriages  be  made  on  the  dies  parentales,  from 
the  thirteenth  to  the  twenty-first  of  February,  when  there 
were  memorial  services  for  deceased  kindred,  and  offer- 
ings to  their  manes,  nor  on  the  three  days  of  the  year 
when  the  underworld  was  supposed  to  stand  open,  — 
namely  August  24,  October  5,  and  November  8,  nor  on 
the  Kalends,  Nones,  or  Ides  of  any  month.  Religious 
holidays  in  general  were  considered  inappropriate  for  the 
marriage  of  young  girls,  though  widows  often  chose  them. 
»  On  the  night  before  her  bridal,  the  maiden  laid  aside 
her  toga  praetexta,  a  simple  tunic,  edged  with  purple  if 
she  were  of  patrician  rank,  an^L  made  utp  apparently 
width-wise  of  the  cloth ;  her  mother  dressed  her  for  the 
first  ti*<ie  in  a  long  white  garment  with  vertical  seams, 
calleu'  a  tunica  recta  or  regilla,  and  confined  her  flowing  hair 
in  a  scarlet  net.  The  true  wedding  gown,  which  she  would 
assume  upon  the  morrow,  was  also  a  white  tunica  recta, 
gathered  in  at  the  waist  by  a  woollen  gir- 
dle which  was  tied  in  a  nodus  Hercideus, 
or  true-lover's  knot,  supposed  to  be  a  charm 
against  the  evil  eye.  The  Jtammeum,  or 
wedding  veil,  was  of  thin,  fine  stuff  and 
of  a  brilliant  orange  red,  or  flame-color, 
very  ample,  first  thrown  over  the  head  from 
behind,  and  then  draped  gracefully  about 
the  person.  The  girl's  hair  was  also  dressed 
in  a  peculiar  manner  for  her  wedding.  The 
bridegroom  himself  must  divide  it  into  six 
strands  or  tresses,  with  the  point  of  a  curved  spear, 
called  the  hasta  caelibdris;  ribbons  or  fillets  were  bound 


Flammeum 
(Rich). 


THE   FAMILY.  13 


between  the  tresses,  which  appear  afterwards  to  have 
been  braided  and  confined  to  the  head.  Above  the  braids 
and  under  the  veil,  the  bride  wore  a  garland  of  natural 
flowers  gathered  by  her  own  hand ;  and  the  bridegroom 
also,  at  least  in  later  times,  always  wore  a  chaplet. 

The  wedding  ceremonies  proper  began  in  the  stillness 
of  the  early  morning  with  the  taking  of  auspices;  and 
this  was  usually  done  by  an  haruspex,  or  professional 
diviner,  who  was  not  a  minister  of  the  state  religion.  A 
victim  was  then  slain  for  the  wedding  sacrifice,  gener- 
ally a  sheep,  and  its  skin  was  spread  over  the  stools  or 
chairs,  on  which  the  bridal  pair  was  to  sit  during  a  por- 
tion of  the  religious  rites  to  follow.  The  guests  now 
assembled,  the  marriage  contract  was  accepted  in  the 
presence  of  ten  witnesses,  and  the  bride  signified  her 
willingness  to  come  into  the  raanus  of  the  bridegroom, 
and,  at  least  theoretically,  to  assume  his  name,  by  relat- 
ing the  very  ancient  formula,1  "  Quando  tu  Gains,  ego 
Gaia,"  you  being  Gaius,  I  am  Gaia."  The  right  hands 
of  the  pair  were  then  joined  by  a  prdnuba,  who  must  have 
been  but  once  married;  and  it  would  seem  from  existing 
bas-reliefs,  as  well  as  from  the  rather  obscure  testimony 
of  ancient  writers,  that  the  wedding  party  then  adjourned 
to  some  temple  or  public  altar,  where  an  offering  —  in 
ancient  times  it  was  a  bloodless  one  of  spelt-cakes  and 
fruit  —  was  made  to  Jupiter ;  and  the  flamen  diCdis  offered 
prayers  to  Juno  as  the  patron  of  marriage,  and  to  Tellus 
and  other  gods  of  the  soil.  During  the  offering  the  bridal 
pair  sat  side  by  side;  during  the  prayers  they  moved 
slowly    around    the    altar    accompanied    by    a    servant 

1  Becker  thinks  that  this  formula  was  not  pronounced  until  the 
wedded  pair  had  entered  their  new  home. 


14 


THE   PRIVATE   LIFE   OF   THE   ROMANS. 


Camillus,  with  Acerra 
(Rich). 


(camillus)  who  bore  a  basket  (cumera)  which  contained 
the  utensilia  of  the  bride, —  probably  her  spinning  imple- 
ments and  marriage  gifts.  A  great  feast, 
usually  at  her  father's  house,  followed  and 
lasted  until  nightfall.  Then  came  the  de- 
ductio,  or  leading  home  of  the  bride.  She 
was  removed  with  a  feint  (sometimes, 
perhaps,  it  needed  the  reality)  of  force, 
from  her  mother's  embrace,  and  led  to  her 
place  in  the  nuptial  procession,  which 
was  followed,  first  by  the  invited  guests, 
and  afterward,  in  most  cases,  by  crowds 
of  the  common  people.  Torch-bearers  and 
flute-players  preceded  the  bride,  and  the  whole  company 
joined  in  singing  Fescennlna,  primitive  and  rather  coarse 
marriage  songs,  probably  so  called  from  the  immemorially 
ancient  Etruscan  town  where  they  had  originated.  The 
gamins  of  the  streets  nocked  about  the  bridegroom,  call- 
ing for  largess  of  walnuts  as  a  sign  that  he  himself  had 
put  away  childish  things ;  while  the  bride  was  escorted 
by  three  youths,  who  must  be  the  sons  of  living  parents 
(jpatrimi  et  matriml).  One  of  these  carried  her  rock  and 
spindle,  while  the  other  two  bore  torches.  The  bridal 
torch  was  not,  as  other  torches,  of  pine  or  fir,  but  must  be 
made  of  the  wood  of  the  white  thorn,  which  was  sacred  to 
Ceres,  and  a  talisman  against  all  kinds  of  harm.  There 
was  a  contest  for  the  possession  of  .it,  among  the  guests, 
after  the  wedding  was  over.  Arrived  before  her  new 
home,  the  bride  anointed  its  door-posts  with  oil  and 
wound  them  with  woollen  bands.  She  was  then  lifted 
over  the  threshold,  a  reminiscence  perhaps  of  the  rape  of 
the  Sabine  women,  and  received  from  her  husband  in 


THE    FAMILY. 

the  atrium,  or  chief  living-room  of  the  dwelling,  tii 
bolic  gifts  of  fire  and  water.  According  to  some  auth 
ities,  the  two  then  knelt  together  and  lighted  their  first 
hearth-fire  from  the  white-thorn  torch.  It  is  certain  that 
the  bride  said  a  prayer  for  married  happiness  before  the 
symbolic  bridal  couch,  which  stood  in  the  atrium,  opposite 
the  entrance-door,  and  which  had  been  previously  decked 
by  the  pronuba.  A  supper  called  the  repbtia  was  given 
by  the  young  people  to  their  relatives  on  the  day  after 
their  wedding,  on  which  occasion  the  bride  made  her 
first  offering  as  a  matron  to  the  household  gods. 

The  union  thus  formed  and  sanctioned  by  the  divine 
blessing  was  at  first,  and  indeed  for  a  long  while,  re- 
garded as  indissoluble.  It  assured  to  the  Roman  matron 
a  very  noble  position;  she  was  subordinate  to  her  hus- 
band in  their  relations  with  the  world,  but  her  sway 
inside  the  home  was  undisputed.  Her  spouse,  no  less 
than  her  children  and  servants,  addressed  her  as  domina, 
or  lady.  No  servile  work  was  ever  expected  of  her;  but 
so  far  from  being  confined  to  one  quarter  of  the  dwelling, 
like  the  Greek  women,  she  moved  freely  through  it,  over- 
seeing all  its  activities  and  arrangements,  the  prepara- 
tion of  meals,  the  spinning  of  her  maidens,  the  lessons  of 
her  children.  She  received  her  husband's  guests,  and  sat 
with  them  at  table,  while  the  children,  and  sometimes 
even  favorite  slaves  who  had  been  born  and  reared  in  the 
house  (vernae),  were  served  at  a  sort  of  side-table  in  the 
same  room.  It  was  not  thought  seemly  for  a  Roman 
matron  to  go  out  without  her  husband's  knowledge  or 
unattended,  but  upon  these  conditions  she  was  free  to 
w  -Ik  abroad ;  place  was  deferentially  made  for  her  in  the 
public  ways,  and  the  stola  matrondlis,  or  peculiar  outside 


iHE  PRIVATE  LIFE   OF  THE   ROMANS. 

nt  which,  she  wore,  was  supposed  to  be  a  protection 
xii  all  discourtesy.  She  attended  public  games  and 
theatrical  representations ;  her  testimony  was  received  in 
the  courts.  She  might  even  plead  for  an  accused  rela- 
tive. If  she  came  of  a  very  noble  race,  she  was  entitled 
to  a  funeral  sermon  or  public  oration  of  eulogy  after  her 
death. 

Such  was  the  ideal  wifehood  of  the  good  old  Roman 
times;  and  there  is  a  sense  in  which  it  may  be  said 
always  to  have  remained  the  ideal.  Everybody  knows 
that  the  mother  of  the  Gracchi  and  the  wife  of  Marcus 
Brutus  were  ladies  of  austere  fashions  and  immaculate 
minds.  Nay,  even  as  late  as  the  fourth  Christian  century 
we  find  St.  Jerome  endeavoring  to  shame  some  of  the 
more  lawless  lambs  of  his  flock,  by  examples  of  private 
rectitude  and  dignity  in  the  first  pagan  families. 

But  long  ere  that  time  the  prevalent  manners  had  fatally 
deteriorated.  The  institution  of  domestic  slavery,  the 
license  consequent  on  the  servile  and  civil  wars,  the 
enormous  increase  of  wealth,  and  the  habits  of  Eastern 
luxury  which  came  in  with  the  Punic  and  other  wars  of 
foreign  conquest,  all  these  were  prolific  sources  of  cor- 
ruption; while  the  study  of  Greek  philosophy,  which  was 
affected  by  the  clever  women  equally  with  their  lords, 
promoted  the  growth  of  novel  ideas,  and  rendered  the 
"  daily  round  and  common  task  "  of  the  olden  time  par- 
ticularly irksome.  Marriage  with  manus  and  religious 
rites  went  more  and  more  out  of  fashion,  except  for  the 
priestly  caste ;  marriage  upon  any  terms  was  avoided  by 
many.  Divorce,  on  the  other  hand,  became  of  daily 
occurrence,  and  could  be  had  on  tthe  most  frivolous  pre- 
texts, as  the  lives  of  the  Romans  whom  we  know  most 


THE   FAMILY.  17 

intimately,  Caesar,  Pompey,  and  their  great  contempora- 
ries, only  too  plainly  show.  Strenuous  efforts  were  made 
by  Augustus  to  restore  the  old  standards  of  domestic 
morality,  and  in  certain  matters  of  personal  indulgence 
he  himself,  after  he  was  firmly  seated  on  the  imperial 
throne,  set  an  honorable  example  of  simplicity  of  life. 
He  established  penalties  for  celibacy  and  rewards  and 
immunities  for  the  fathers  of  three  or  more  legitimate 
children;  but  these  remedies  were  applied  too  late  to 
arrest  the  inevitable  progress  of  social  decay. 

Before  proceeding  to  describe  more  minutely  the  daily 
habits  of  the  Romans,  and  the  houses  in  which  they 
lived,  we  will  add  to  our  account  of  the  old-fashioned 
marriage  ceremonies  a  description  of  the  rites  of  burial. 

Nearly  all  we  know  of  the  funerals  of  the  earliest  his- 
toric period  is  that  they  invariably  took  place  by  night. 

Later,  when  there  had  come  to  be  much  emulation  in 
the  matter  of  funeral  expense  and  display,  the  obsequies, 
at  least  of  distinguished  people,  were  often  celebrated 
in  the  daytime,  and  it  was  reserved  for  the  Emperor 
Julian  to  prescribe  a  return  to  the  solemn  custom  of  old, 
by  an  edict  beginning  with  the  simple  words,1  "Death  is 
rest,  and  night  is  the  time  for  rest." 

The  lighted  torch  always  held  its  place  in  the  ceremo- 
nial, as  it  does  for  the  most  part  in  Latin  countries  to 
this  day,  and  thus  it  became  the  symbol  both  of  wedding 
and  of  burial.  Grand  public  funerals  were  the  exclusive 
privilege  of  eminent  men  and  the  scions  of  the  great 
families;  and  the  funeral  procession  was  so  arranged  as 
to  afford  an  opportunity  for  the  most  pompous  exhibition 
of  wealth,  political   honors,   or  long  descent.     Even  as 

1  Cod.  Theod.  ix.  17.5. 


18 


THE   PRIVATE   LIFE   OF   THE   ROMANS. 


early  as  451  b.c.  there  were  laws  inscribed  on  the  tenth 
of  the  Twelve  Tables,  limiting  the  sum  which  might  be 
expended  on  incense  for  burning  before  the  bier,  and 
flowers  to  be  heaped  upon  it,  on  the  grave-clothes,  which 
were  often  of  extraordinary  splendor,  on  the  construction 
of  the  funeral-pile  (rogus)  in  cases  of  cremation,  on  the 
number  of  musicians,  and  the  luxury  of  the  funeral  feast. 
In  the  time  of  Sulla,  further  sumptuary  laws  were 
passed  to  the  same  end.  The  aediles  were  required  to 
exercise  a  kind  of  police  duty  in  clearing  the  way  for  the 
procession,  and  the  fire-brigade  had  to  be  in  attendance 
in  the  narrow  streets  of  tall,  wooden-roofed  houses,  to  pre- 
vent accidents  from  the  flaring  torches,  as  well  as  to  stand 
guard  over  the  ignited  pyre.  All  these  precautions  were, 
however,  wildly  disregarded  in  the  case  of  Sulla's  own 
costly  and  ostentatious  funeral. 

When  a  man  of  rank,  whether  a  patrician  or  one  of  the 
official  nobility,  had  breathed  his  last,  his  eyes  were  closed 

by  the  nearest  of 
the  relatives  present, 
while  the  rest  lifted 
up  a  cry  called  the 
conclamatio,  in  the 
f  o  r  lo  r  n  hope  of 
awakening  him 
should  he  merely 
have  fallen  into  a  trance.  The  friends  then  retired, 
and  the  body  was  left  in  the  hands  of  professional 
undertakers,  or  libitinaril,  who  washed,  anointed,  and 
clothed  it  richly,  set  between  the  teeth  —  at  least  from 
very  early  times  —  the  coin  to  pay  Charon,  the  ferry- 
man of  the    Styx,  and  laid  it  on  a  couch  of  state  in 


Conclamatio. 


THE   FAMILY.  19 

the  atrium  of  the  dwelling,  with  feet  turned  toward 
the  entrance  door.  Incense  was  kindled  all  about, 
either  in  trays  or  on  miniature  altars  (acerrae),  and 
flowers  were  used  in  profusion.  The  insignia  of  office 
of  the  deceased,  if  he  had  filled  public  offices,  were  all 
displayed,  and  also  the  crowns,  if  any,  which  he  had  won 
in  the  public  games,  or  which  had  been  decreed  him  by 
the  Senate  for  triumphs  upon  the  sterner  field  of  war. 
Boughs  of  cypress  or  pine  were  then  hung  up  in  the  ves- 
tibule as  a  token  of  mourning,  and  the  lying  in  state 
lasted  from  three  to  eight  days,  during  which  time  the 
corpse  was  visited  by  kindred,  clients,  and  friends.  If 
the  interment  or  cremation  were  to  be  private,  the 
remains  were  then  quickly  taken  away  (funus  taciturn  or 
plebeium).  Otherwise  a  herald  summoned  those  who 
were  expected  to  join  the  procession  by  the  solemn  and 
very  ancient  formula,  "  Ollus  Quiris  letb  datus.  Exse- 
quids  quibus  est  commodum,  ire  iam  tempus  est.  Ollus 
ex  aedibus  effertur."  "  This  Roman  citizen  is  surrendered 
to  death.  It-  is  now  time  for  the  fitting  guests  to  attend 
his  burial.     He  is  carried  forth  from  his  house."  1 

The  order  of  the  procession  was  then  arranged  by  a 
master  of  ceremonies,  called  a  designator.  It  closely 
resembled  a  triumphal  march.  A  band  of  music  went 
before  with  trumpets,  pipes,  and  horns  (tubae,  tibiae,  et 
cornua) ;  then  came  always  in  ancient  times  the  hired 
female  mourners  (praeficae),  intoning  an  elegy  (naenia)  on 

1  Ollus  is  merely  the  ancient  form  of  ille.  Qidris  is  the  obsolete 
singular  of  quirites,  the  Roman  in  his  civic  capacity,  or  member  of 
one  of  the  thirty  curiae.  From  association  with  this  mortuary 
proclamation,  the  word  quirtiatio  came  to  signify  a  shriek  or  sor- 
rowful cry. 


20  THE   PRIVATE   LIFE    OF   THE   ROMANS. 

the  deceased;  next,  exactly  as  in  a  triumphal  procession 
after  a  victory  in  the  circus,  came  dancers  and  mimes,  to 
whom  a  singular  freedom  of  speech  and  action,  even  of 
jest,  was  allowed.  In  the  fourth  place,  came  the  most 
significant  and  imposing  part  of  the  whole  stately  cere- 
mony, the  procession  of  ancestors  in  their  imagines,  or 
likenesses.  When  a  man  of  note  died,  a  wax  mask  was 
immediately  taken  of  his  features,  and  colored  in  exact 
resemblance  to  his  look  in  life  and  health.  This  mask 
was  affixed  to  a  bust  of  wood  or  marble,  enclosed  in  a 
marble  or  alabaster  shrine  with  doors,  usually  shaped 
like  a  miniature  house,  and  set  up  in  the  hall  of  the 
deceased.  On  the  days  appointed  for  the  commemoration 
of  the  dead,  these  shrines  were  opened,  and  the  busts 
crowned  with  flowers;  and  the  greater  the  number  of 
shrines,  of  course,  the  longer  and  more  illustrious  the 
line  which  they  represented.  On  the  occasion  of  a  public 
funeral,  these  wax  masks  were  removed  and  worn  by  pro- 
fessional actors,  hired  for  the  occasion,  who  might  resem- 
ble the  distinguished  dead  in  stature,  and  would  strive 
further  to  impersonate  them  in  speech  and  action.  The 
dead  man  seemed  thus  to  be  accompanied  and  ushered  to 
his  rest  by  a  guard  of  honor,  composed  of  all  his  famous 
forbears,  nor  was  family  pride  always  content  with  the 
images  of  historical  personages  merely,  but  mythical 
ancestors  were  also  introduced,  and  Tacitus  tells  us 1  that 
iEneas  and  all  the  kings  of  Alba  Longa  walked  in  the 
funeral  train  of  Drusus.  The  same  great  writer  gives 
one  of  his  most  thrilling  descriptions 2  of  the  grand 
funeral  sixty-four  years  after  the  battle  of  Philippi,  of 
the  aged  Junia,  niece  of  Cato,  wife  of  Cassius,  and  sister 

1  Tac.  Ann.  iv.  9.  2  Tac.  Ann.  iii.  76. 


Columbarium. 


THE   FAMILY.  21 

of  Marcus  Brutus :  "  The  images  of  twenty  most  illus- 
trious families  were  carried  before  her,"  he  says,  "but 
Brutus  and  Cassius  were  conspicuous, "  —  nay,  his  word 
is  stronger,  praefulgebanl, — "were  illustrious,  by  their 
absence, "  being  still  under  attainder  on  account  of  their 
complicity  in  the  death  of  Caesar. 

After  the  ancestors,  followed  the  memorials  of  the 
dead  man's  public  achievements;  if  he  were  a  general, 
the  spoils  he  might  have  taken  in  war,  and  pictures  of  the 
cities  he  had  subdued.  Then  came  torch-bearers  and 
lictors  with  lowered  faeces,  and,  after  them,  the  body 
itself,  extended  and  exposed  in  rich  garments  upon  a 
lofty  bier,  covered  by  a  magnificent  pall,  and  either  borne 
by  sons  of  the  deceased  or  by  slaves  who  had  been  set  free 
in  his  will;  or  else  it  was  enclosed  in  a  coffin  (capulus), 
which  was  surmounted  by  a  sitting  effigy  of  the  deceased 
arrayed  in  robes  of  state.  Last  walked  the  mourners,  all 
in  black  in  early  times,  though  white  was  afterwards 
allowed  to  women.  The  latter  wore  no  ornaments;  the 
men  were  without  fasces,  rings,  or  any  insignia  of  office. 
The  sons  went  with  veiled  faces;  the  daughters  un- 
veiled, but  with  streaming  hair.  Then  came  freedmen 
and  slaves  manumitted  by  the  will  of  the  deceased,  —  the 
latter  with  shaven  heads,  —  clients,  friends,  the  public 
generally,  just  as  in  a  funeral  of  to-day.  Custom  im- 
posed no  check  upon  the  expression  of  grief,  and  flowers 
and  severed  locks  of  hair  were  freely  scattered  upon  the 
passing  hearse  or  bier.  , 

If  there  were  to  be  a  public  oration,  the  funeral  pro- 
cession moved  first  to  the  forum,  where  the  speech  was 
delivered.  Such  an  oration  had  to  be  authorized  by  a 
decree  of  the  Senate,  and  the  speaker  addressed  himself 


22  THE   PRIVATE    LTEE    OF   THE    ROMANS. 

to  the  general  assembly  of  Quirites  ("Friends,  Romans, 
countrymen")  rather  than  to  the  relatives  of  the  de- 
ceased. In  other  cases  an  informal  eulogy  was  spoken 
at  the  place  of  interment  and  addressed  to  the  mourners 
only.  It  is  not  certain  that  any  woman  of  republican 
times  was  ever  honored  by  a  formal  public  oration,  save 
those  of  the  Julian  gens.  The  great  Caesar  we  know  made 
his  debut  as  an  orator,  at  the  age  of  eighteen,  in  the 
eulogy  of  his  aunt  Julia,  the  widow  of  Marius.  Under 
the  empire,  however,  the  practice  became  common  for  the 
women  of  the  reigning  family  and  all  others  of  high 
fashion  or  distinction. 

From  the  forum  the  procession  passed  on  to  the  place 
of  interment  or  cremation,  which  was,  with  rare  excep- 
tions, outside  the  city  walls.  All  the  great  highways 
leading  out  of  Kome  had  come,  in  the  last  centuries  of 
the  state,  to  be  lined  with  family  tombs,  the  vast  ex- 
tent and  infinite  splendor  of  some  of  which  may  still 
be  judged  from  the  Castle  of  Sant'  Angelo,  which  was 
the  mausoleum  of  the  Emperor  Hadrian,  and  from  the 
impressive  ruins  which  border  the  desolate  old  Via 
Appia.  Some  noblemen  had  private  burial  places  of 
great  beauty,  shady  with  trees,  or  gay  with  flower-beds 
and  fountains,  enclosed  upon  their  suburban  estates ;  and 
slaves  and  other  dependants  of  the  family  were  laid, 
humbly  indeed,  and  at  a  respectful  distance,  but  within 
the  same  precinct  as  their  betters.  The  tomb  was  con- 
ceived as  at  least  the  temporary  dwelling-place  of  the 
dead,  and  often  very  richly  furnished.  The  walls  were 
frescoed;  there  were  lamps  and  candelabra,  for  both  illu- 
mination and  decoration;  vases  of  beautiful  shape  and 
workmanship,  over  and  above  the  cinerarv  urns,  were 


y. 


te 


x 


x 


THE   FAMILY. 


tastefully  disposed  around  about.  The  warrior  had^his 
weapons  beside  him,  the  civic  officer  his  badges,  the 
great  lady  her  ornaments  and  toilet  articles,  the  child  its 
toys.  All  these  things  helped  to  give  the  tomb  a  home- 
like appearance,  both  on  the  grievous  day  of  burial,  and 
on  those  subsequent  days,  when  religious  services  were 
held  there  in  memory  of  the  dead.  The  remains  were 
either  simply  deposited  with  the  couch,  or  lectus,  on  which 
they  had  been 
carried  to  the 
grave,  or  they 
were  enclosed 
in  one  of  those 


CQfWEUP    CM-F  KIPiO  (tfi 


sculptured   sar- 

cophagi      of 

which  so  many     \  i 

beautiful  exam-  sarcophagus. 

pies  are  still  to 

be  seen.     The  religious  rites  which  followed,  called  the 

feriae  denicales,  included  both  a  consecration  of  the  new 

resting-place  and  a  purification  of  the  bereaved  relatives, 

from  their  contact  with  death.     A  nine-days  mourning  — 

the  novendial  —  ensued,  and  was  concluded  by  an  offering 

to  the  manes,  and  a  funeral  feast,  —  the  cena  novendialis, 

—  after  which  the  mourning  robes  were  laid  aside,  and 

the  ordinary  activities  of  life  resumed.     If  there  were 

funeral  games,  these  too  were  originally  celebrated  on 

the  ninth  day. 

In  cases  of  cremation,  the  simpler  and  probably  older 
fashion  was  to  excavate  a  grave  some  three  and  a  half 
feet  deep,  and  fill  it  with  fuel.  This  was  a  bustum;  the 
corpse  was  extended  on  it,  the  fuel  kindled,  the  bones 


24  THE   PRIVATE   LIFE   OF   THE   ROMANS. 

and  ashes  fell  into  the  cavity  with  the  coals  of  the  dying 
fire,  and  the  former  were  subsequently  collected  in  an 
urn,  which  was  set  in  the  midst  of  the  ashes.  The  earth 
was  then  filled  in  and  heaped  above  in  a  tumulus,  and  the 
place  was  enclosed.  These  were  the  "vile  obsequies,"  to 
use  the  expression  of  Tacitus,1  accorded  by  Nero  to  his 
mother  Agrippina,  and  the  historian  tells  furthermore, 
to  the  shame  of  the  Emperor,  how  the  body  was  burned 
with  indecent  haste  upon  a  dining-couch,  on  the  very 
night  of  the  murder,  and  how  the  spot  remained  for  years 

unenclosed  and  uncared  for.     Cre- 
<"'•  i<&L   ''-'"  mat  ion  upon  the  rogus,  or  funeral 

pyre,  was  a  much  more  stately  and 
costly  affair.  This  took  place  upon 
unconsecrated  ground,  but  near  the 
family  burial  place.  The  rogus  was 
Rogus.  often  of  elaborate  and  artistic  con- 

struction, and  all  manner  of  arti- 
cles of  luxury,  spices,  garments,  ornaments,  and  rich 
wares  of  every  kind,  were  laid  thereon  by  friends,  as  last 
gifts  to  the  deceased,  and  consumed  in  the  general  con- 
flagration. The  coals  were  then  quenched  with  water  or 
wine,  a  few  days'  exposure  to  the  Italian  sun  and  air 
sufficed  to  dry  the  ashes,  which  were  collected  in  an  urn 
or  other  cinerarium,  and  deposited  in  the  tomb  before  the 
end  of  the  nine  days'  mourning. 

Such  were  the  obsequies  of  the  rich  and  great.  The 
masses  laid  their  dead  away  silently,  as  they  have  done 
in  all  times,  and  we  have  already  seen  that  fiinus  taciturn 
and  funus  plebeium  were  interchangeable  terms.  For  the 
comparatively  well-to-do  there  were  those  vast  systems 

1  Tac.  Ann.  xiv.  J). 


\3     .A  F}  y- 

OF   THK 

"UNIVERSITY 


*£f  califorh^ 


-4-3 
<1 


go 


O 


THE   FAMILY.  25 

of  columbaria,  or  rows  of  super-imposed  niches,  like  the 
nests  of  a  dove-cote,  associated  chiefly  in  our  minds  with 
their  hallowed  usage  by  Christians  in  the  catacombs,  but 
originally  a  pagan  fashion,  dating  from  early  Koman 
times.  The  columbaria  were  often  constructed  and 
owned  by  joint-stock  companies,  who  undertook  to  keep 
them  in  order  and  sold  or  let  the  separate  niches  as 
required.  Or  a  great  nobleman  would  build  a  columba- 
rium for  the  reception  of  his  slaves,  by  way  of  adjunct  to 
the  family  tomb,  as  may  still  be  seen  in  the  burying-place 
of  the  Volusii  near  Perugia.  For  the  very  poor  there 
were  simply  vast  common  pits  (puticuli)  into  which  the 
bodies  were  flung  uncofnned,  while  the  bodies  of  malefac- 
tors, even  in  Horace's  time,1  were  exposed  unburied  to 
the  action  of  the  elements,  and  to  the  birds  and  beasts  of 
prey. 

All  through  the  republican  period,  and  probably  in  yet 
earlier  times,  a  vast  common  burial  place  extended  out- 
side the  Viminal  and  Esquiline  gates  of  Rome,  covering, 
roughly  speaking,  the  space  now  occupied  by  the  rail- 
way station  and  the  new  quarter  beyond  it.  Maecenas 
appears  to  have  been  the  first  to  appropriate  to  private 
uses  a  portion  of  this  ancient  cemetery,  which  he  trans- 
formed into  a  garden  or  park.  His  example  was  followed 
by  Pallas,  a  freedman  of  Claudius,  and  by  others,  until 
the  whole  region  became  a  place  of  gardens  like  the 
Pincian  hill,  and  the  recent  dead  were  probably  pushed 
further  afield. 

As  between  burial  and  cremation,  the  former  was  the 
ancient  Oscan  and  Latian  practice,  and  the  innate  preju- 
dices of  the  Latin  race  appear  always  to  have  been  in  its 

1  Hor.  Ep.  i.  8,  17. 


26  THE   PRIVATE   LIFE   OF   THE   ROMANS. 

favor.  In  semi-Greek  Etruria,  on  the  other  hand,  as  may 
be  seen  in  great  numbers  of  existing  tombs,  the  two  cus- 
toms nourished  side  by  side,  and  they  did  so  in  Kome, 
certainly  from  an  early  historic  period.  The  expansion 
of  the  city  and  the  vast  increase  of  its  population  created 
powerful  sanitary  reasons  in  favor  of  cremation;  but 
certain  great  families,  like  the  Cornelii,  stood  out  against 
it  to  the  end.  The  underlying  thought  in  burial  seems 
to  have  been  that  of  deep  rest  on  the  bosom  of  the  com- 
mon mother;  —  in  burning,  that  of  consuming  the  corrup- 
tible flesh  in  sacrifice,  while  the  spirit  ascended  in  vapor 
to  the  heaven  out  of  which  it  came.  The  latter  idea 
seems  at  first  sight  the  more  pious  of  the  two;  but  their 
full  belief  in  the  resurrection  of  the  body  caused  it  to  be 
rejected  by  the  early  Christians,  and  with  the  conquest 
of  the  Roman  Empire  by  Christianity  the  burning  of 
man's  mortal  remains  went  wholly  out  of  use. 

It  remains  to  say  a  word  concerning  Roman  feasts  and 
services  in  commemoration,  one  might  almost  say  in  wor- 
ship, of  the  dead.  These  were  numerous  and  religiously 
observed,  some  public  and  some  private.  To  the  former 
belong  the  parentalia,  celebrated  on  the  dies  2Jctrentales,  or 
days  of  kindred,  which  lasted  from  the  thirteenth  to  the 
twenty-first  of  February  inclusive.  They  began  with  a 
service  of  the  vestal  virgins  at  the  grave  of  Tarpeia,  and 
while  they  lasted  the  temples  were  closed,  magistrates 
laid  aside  their  badges  of  office,  and  weddings,  as  we 
have  seen,  might  not  take  place.  We  seem  to  hear  an 
echo  of  the  priestly  functions  performed  on  these  occa- 
sions, in  the  voice  which  weekly  in  every  Roman  Catho- 
lic church  entreats  the  charity  of  common  prayer  for  the 
dead  "whose  anniversaries  occur  about  this  time."    Over 


Oh 


H 


c 
a 

DC 

o 


THE    FAMILY.  27 

and  above  these  public  rites,  there  were  many  private 
services  in  memory  of  the  departed,  feasts,  like  the 
so-called  rosdles,  occurring  in  the  spring  or  early  sum- 
mer,  when  flowers  are  most  abundant,  where  friends  were 
invited  to  a  simple  funeral  banquet  of  bread  and  wine, 
eggs  and  vegetables  at  the  tomb  of  the  deceased;  and 
roses  or  violets,  as  the  case  might  be,  were  distributed  to 
the  guests  to  be  laid  upon  the  grave,  and  offerings  were 
made  there  of  water,  wine,  warm  milk,  honey,  -or  oil. 
There  exists  a  fragment  of  a  cippus  or  funeral  stone,  the 
inscription  upon  which  provides  that  the  sleeper  shall 
be  commemorated  by  sacrifices  four  times  each  year; 
namely,  "on  the  anniversary  of  his  birthday,  on  rose- 
clay,  on  violet-clay,  and  during  the  general  parentalia," 
and  that  a  lamp  shall  be  lighted  and  incense  burned 
at  his  tomb  on  the  Calends,  Nones,  and  Ides  of  every 
month. 


,  # 


28  THE   PRIVATE   LIFE   OF    THE   ROMANS. 


CHAPTER     II. 

THE  HOUSE  AND  EVERY-DAY  LIFE. 

The  ordinary  Roman  dwelling-house  had  always  been, 
even  to  the  scholar,  somewhat  of  a  mystery,  until  the 
discovery  of  Herculaneum  and  Pompeii,  in  the  middle 
of  the  eighteenth  century,  suddenly  threw  a  good  deal  of 
light  upon  its  construction  and  arrangements.  The  silent 
testimony  of  those  partially  ruined  and  long  buried 
homes  was  all  the  more  valuable  because,  in  Pompeii, 
especially,  they  represented  the  average  middle-class 
dwellings  of  a  provincial  town,  commodious  and  even 
elegant  as  compared  with  the  farm-houses  and  cottages 
of  the  rural  poor,  cramped  and  insignificant  beside  the 
costly  city  mansions,  and  the  yet  more  extensive  and 
extravagant  mountain  and  seaside  villas  of  the  wealthy 
nobles. 

The  one  essential  feature  of  all  these  houses,  the  cen- 
tral point  and  distinctive  mark  of  the  Roman  dwelling 
in  all  its  developments,  that  which  distinguishes  it  from 
the  Greek  and  the  houses  of  the  farther  East  on  the  one 
hand,  and,  on  the  other,  allies  it  with  the  houses  of  our 
own  race,  was  the  atrium,  long  the  common  living-room 
o/o£  the  entire  family.  The  earliest  Roman  houses  may 
indeed  be  said  to  have  been  all  atrium.  Here,  within 
the  same  four  walls  were  assembled  the  family  hearth 
and  altar,  the  family  portraits  in  wax  and  the  marriage- 


THE   HOUSE.  20 

bed,  here  the  meals  were  cooked  and  served,  the  men 
lounged  after  labor,  and  the  women  sr#n;  the  very  name 
is  probably  derived  from  the  black  (titer)  color  imparted 
to  the  room,  and  its  contents  generally,  by  the  circling 
smoke  of  the  hearth  fire,  which  had  to  find  its  way  out 
by  open  door  or  perforated  roof,  since  it  is  certain  that 
down  to  comparatively  modern  Roman  times  chimney- 
flues  were  unknown. 
/  The  houses  thus  occupied  were  small  and  detached 
v  even  in  the  more  considerable  towns.  They  were  built 
of  wood,  or,  later,  of  brick,  mostly  square  in  shape,  and 
roofed  with  wood  or  thatch,  carried  up  to  a  point  (culmen) 
in  the  form  of  a  four-sided  pyramid;  while  a  yet  meaner 
sort,  circular  in  shape,  with  conical  roof  and  built  of  wat- 
tled reeds,  is  still  represented  by  the  miserable  shelter- 
huts  of  the  shepherds  on  the  Roman  Campagna.  It  was 
the  typical  early  Roman  house  which  Virgil  conceived  as 
the  palace  of  Evander  on 
the  Palatine  hill,  in  the 
beautiful  passage,  *  where 
he  tells  how  the  pauper  king 
was  awakened  by  the  light 
of  early  morning  streaming 
through  the  door  of  his  cot, 
and   the    singing   of   birds 

Upon       its       10W       rOOf -tree.       Sepulchral  Urn  inform  of  Primitive  House. 

Such,  too.  was  the  so-called 

Casa  Romulea,  long  preserved  as  a  kind  of  sanctuary  on 
the  northwesterly  slope  of  the  Palatine.  But  however 
primitive  and  promiscuous  the  life  led  in  these  plain 
dwellings  may  appear,  it  was  not  necessarily  vulgar  nor 

1  M\\.  viii.  455  seq. 


30  THE   PRIVATE    LIFE    OF    THE    ROMANS. 

lacking  in  a  certain  dignity,  as  those  will  readily  under- 
stand who  have  entered  the  common  room  of  &  podere,  or 
farm,  upon  the  Tuscan  hills,  or  a  hospitable  farm-house 
kitchen  in  Old  or  New  England.1 

Having  thus  gotten  some  idea  of  what  constituted  the 
kernel  of  a  Roman  dwelling,  let  us  see  what  the  ordinary 
town-house  had  become  in  the  latter  days  of  the  republic. 

Its  entrance-door  did  not  open  directly  from  the  street, 
but  at  the  end  of  a  passage  called  the  ostium  or  aditus, 
(  paved  with  tiles  and  flanked  by  rooms  which  were  usually 
let  out  as  shops.  The  door  was  of  wood,  with  pillars 
(postes)  upon  either  side.  It  had  regularly  two  leaves, 
or  fores,  which  swung  outward  into  the  passage  on  an 
arrangement  of  pivot  and  socket  called  a  cardo,  and  were 
secured,  when  closed,  by  bolts  (pessuli)  at  the  top  and 
bottom.  This  door  led  sometimes  into  a  short  continua- 
tion of  the  passage,  divided  by  a  curtain  from  the  atrium, 
and  sometimes  directly  into  the  latter,  now  often  called 
the  cavaedium,  or  hollow  part  of  the  dwelling,  and  still 
constituting  its  main  apartment.2 

1  There  are  scores  of  verses  in  "both  Horace  and  Virgil  which 
testify  to  the  sentiment  of  fond  reverence  and  unavailing  regret 
with  which  the  highly  civilized  and  sophisticated  writers  of  the 
Augustan  age  looked  back  upon  the  plain  old-fashioned  country- 
life.  One  of  the  finest  of  these  is  the  exquisite  passage  near  the 
end  of  the  second  Georgic,  beginning  with  the  incessantly  quoted 
"O  fortunatos  nimium."  Cicero  says,  however  {Be  Rep.  v.  2), 
what  was  doubtless  the  exact  truth,  that  the  men  of  his  time  for 
the  most  part  looked  back  upon  the  old  republic  and  its  customs 
as  on  a  noble  but  dilapidated  picture  which  they  no  longer  cared 
to  restore. 

2  Becker  and  some  others  maintain  that  the  atrium  and  cavae- 
dium were  distinct  rooms ;   but  the  latest  authorities  are  against 


THE   HOUSE.  81 

This  developed  atrium  was  oblong  in  shape,  and  the 
centre  of  the  floor  was  occupied  by  a  marble  cistern  (im- 
pluvium),  with  pipes  under  the  floor  for  carrying  off  the 
water.  Above  this,  in  the  vast  majority  of  cases,  there 
was  no  roof  at  all.  The  tiled  covering  of  the  surround- 
ing space  was  supported  by  strong  cross-beams,  and 
sloped  inward  upon  its  four  sides  for  convenience  in 
conducting  the  rain-water  into  the  cistern  below.  This, 
the  simplest  kind  of  roof,  and  the  one  most  employed, 
was  called  a  Tusccmicum,  or  Tuscan  roof.  Sometimes  a 
pillar  was  set  at  each  of  the  four  corners  of  the  implu- 
vium,  where  the  beams  intersected,  in  which  case  the 
atrium  was  said  to  be  tetrastylon,  or  four-columned. 
Sometimes  the  beams  were  not  extended  to  the  wall,  but 
merely  supported  by  a  row  of  pillars  around  the  implu- 
vium.  This  was  a  Corinthian  atrium.  In  other  cases 
the  atrium  was  displuviatum  ;  that  is,  the  roof  sloped  out- 
ward, and  the  rain-water  ran  into  gutters  under  the  eaves 
and  was  carried  off  by  pipes,  as  in  a  modern  house ;  the 
whole  system  of  roof  and  pipes  being  called,  in  any  case, 
the  compluvium.  The  last  kind  of  roof  alone  was  occa- 
sionally carried  up  to  a  point  above  the  central  basin, 
and  the  atrium,  thus  completely  roofed  in,  was  called 
testudineatum.  How  the  atrium  was  lighted  in  this  case 
we  do  not  exactly  know.  It  is  probable  that  the  small 
flanking. chambers,   presently  to  be  described,    had  no 

them.  Doubtless  there  were  spacious  houses  with  two  halls,  that 
is  to  say,  with  a  sort  of  ante-chamber  between  the  ostium  and 
cavaedium.  Pliny's  Laurentian  villa  we  know  was  arranged  in  this 
way,  but  the  progress  of  Pompeian  excavation  seems  to  have  ren- 
dered it  certain  that  the  average  Roman  town-house  had  no  such 
luxury. 


32      THE  PRIVATE  LIFE  OF  THE  ROMANS. 

second-story  rooms  above  them,  and  that  there  may  have 
been  a  row  of  windows  or  apertures  under  the  roof,  like 
the  clere-story  windows  of  a  cathedral.  In  the  far  more 
numerous  cases  where  the  atrium  was  lighted  simply  by 

\fihe  opening  above  the  impluvium,  there  were  always 
arrangements,  as  in  the  theatres,  for  drawing  an  awning, 
or  velum,  across  the  open  space,  as  a  protection  from  the 
sun.  The  atrium  in  one  or  other  of  these  forms  was 
still  the  place  where  guests  were  received,  where  certain 
rites  of  domestic  worship  were  celebrated,  and  where 
the  dead  lay  in  state.  But  the  cooking  was  now  done  in 
a  kitchen  (culina)  at  the  back  of  the  establishment,  and 
the  hearth-stone,  where  sacrifices  to  the  household  gods 
had  been  made  in  primitive  times,  was  represented  by 
a  marble  altar,  set  against  the  rear  wall  of  the  apartment. 
On  either  side  of  the  atrium,  down  about  two-thirds  of 
its  length,  ran  a  row  of  small  square  rooms,  the  sitting, 

/  sleeping,  and  guest  rooms  of  the  establishment.  These 
opened  into  the  hall  either  by  doors  or  portieres,  and 
from  one  of  them  ascended  the  steep  and  narrow  stairs, 
which  led  to  the  upper  story.  Beyond  this  range  of 
diminutive  rooms,  on  either  side,  the  atrium  broadened 
out  into  two  cdae,  wings  or  alcoves,  in  the  comparative 
seclusion  of  which  were  now  arranged  the  portrait  busts 
of  the  ancestors  in  their  several  niches  or  shrines,  and  so 
ordered,  in  cases  of  long  descent,  as  to  present  the  sem- 
blance of  a  family  tree ;  while  bronze  tablets,  recording 
the  names  and  deeds  of  the  persons  commemorated,  were 
set  in  the  wall  beneath  their  respective  shrines. 

Between  the  two  alae,  directly  opposite  the  entrance- 
door,  was  the  opening  into  the  tablinum,  which  was 
usually  divided  from  the  atrium  by  curtains  only.     In 


THE  HOUSE.  83 

old-fashioned  country  houses  of  the  better  sort,  the  tabli- 
num had  been  represented  by  a  sort  of  open  porch  or 
veranda,  often  a  sinrpfe  pergula,  roofed  by  a  trellis  for 
vines,  which  ran  all  along  the  back  of  the  modest  dwell- 
ing, and  led  to  the  gaipens  or  orchards  behind  it.  Under 
the  roof  of  this  porcfh  the  rustic  "Squire,"  to  whom,  as 
always  happens,  it  fell  naturally  to  enact  the  magistrate, 
heard  complaints  and  decided  differences  between  his 
tenants  and  humble  neighbors;  and  the  tabulae,  or 
records  of  his  decisions,  were  deposited  there.  Later, 
when  the  dwelling  had  considerably  developed, %.and  the 
simple  back  porch  had  become  only  one  side  of  a  quad- 
rangular colonnade,  surrounding  an  open  court,  the  tt 
\lqe  were  removed  to  the  interior  of  the  dwelling,, 
the  room  where  they  were  kept  took  its  name  from  thl 
tablinum.  In  this,  and  the  corresponding  room  of 
town-house,  other  family  archives  came  also  to  be  depos- 
ited, and  here  were  put  upon  record  those  curious  con- 
tracts for  mutual  hospitality  —  hospitia  privata, —  which 
will  be  described  in  another  chapter.  Here,  too,  stood 
the  strong-box  of  the  master  of  the  mansion,  and  the 
tablinum  was  in  some  sort  his  study  or  den.  It  could 
be  shut  off  from  all  the  rest  of  the  house,  from  the  atrium 
by  the  heavy  curtain  or  curtains  already  mentioned, 
from  the  open  court  at  the  back  by  folding  doors ;  and  it 
was  flanked  by  two  narrow  passages  (fauces)  with  doors 
at  either  end,  through  which  the  family  and  the  domestic 
slaves  could  pass  and  re-pass  between  the  atrium  and 
the  rear  portion  of  the  house.  But  if  the  curtains  in 
front  of  the  tablinum  were  withdrawn,  and  the  doors  at 
the  back  thrown  open,  he  who  entered  the  house  from 
the    front   had  an  uninterrupted,  and,  what  must    have 


J 


34  THE   PRIVATE   LIFE   OF    THE   ROMANS. 

been  on  a  bright  clay,  a  very  charming  view  across  the 
atrium,  filled  with  the  diffused  and  softly  colored  light 
which  filtered  through  the  velum  overhead,  and  down  the 
vista  of  the  tablinum,  to  the  fountain,  flowers,  and  shrub- 
bery, which  occupied  the  centre  of  the  great  pillared  court, 
or  peristylum,  beyond. 

The  peristyle  had  now  become  quite  as  important  a 
member  of  the  dwelling  as  the  atrium.  Whoever  has 
seen  the  garden-court  of  an  Italian  villa  or  palace,1  or  a 
green  convent  or  college  cloister,  and  has  also  seen  Pom- 
peii, will  have  an  approximate  idea  of  the  general  aspect 
of  a  peristyle. 

The  ambulatory,  or  surrounding  promenade,  was  much 
narrower  than  the  covered  part  of  the  atrium,  the  open 
space,  of  course,  proportionally  larger.  From  the  peri- 
style, and  usually  on  its  right,  opened  the  triclinium,  or 
principal  dining-room  of  the  house,  the  neighboring 
kitchen,  or  culina,  and  the  sacrarium,  or  chapel,  where 
the  images  of  the  gods  were  set  up,  and  sacrifices  and 
other  ceremonies  of  private  worship  were  actually  per- 
formed; for  the  altar  in  the  atrium  seems  rather  to  have 
been  a  reminiscence  of  the  hearth,  and  an  ornamental 
symbol  of  devotion,  than  intended  for  frequent  use. 

From  under  the  colonnade  on  the  opposite,  or  left- 
hand,  side  opened  storerooms  of  various  kinds  and  a 
second  stair  which  sometimes  led  to  inferior  sleeping- 
rooms  upon  the  upper  story.  At  the  back  of  the  peri- 
style there  was  usually  an  open  garden. 

Such  being  the  typical  arrangement  of  the  Roman 
dwelling,  there  was  room,  as  in  our  modern  houses,  for 
great  variations  of  detail,  and  it  is  easy  to  understand 

1  The  beautiful  court  of  the  post-office  at  Rome  is  a  good  example. 


THE    HOUSE.  35 

the  sort  of  change  which  would  be  introduced  by  the 
increase  of  wealth,  the  adoption  of  Eastern  fashions,  and 
the  enormous  growth  of  private  luxury.  To  begin  with 
the  entrance :  —  the  shallow,  sunken  porch  before  the 
ostium,  formed  by  the  projection  of  the  shops  on  either 
side,  would  now  be  expanded  into  a  spacious  vestibule 
with  marble  floor,  richly  adorned  with  statues  and  por- 
trait-busts, prizes  of  prowess  and  trophies  of  arms,  even 
the  state  chariot  which  had  borne  the  master  of  the  house 
on  occasions  of  public  triumph  sometimes  found  a  place 
here ;  and  it  was  here  that  the  countless  throng  of  friends, 
clients,  and  other  proteges  and  dependants  who  hung 
upon  the  footsteps  of  a  distinguished  citizen  in  later  days, 
waited,  sometimes  from  before  daylight,  to  give  the  salu- 
tdtio,  or  morning  greeting,  to  the  great  man  when  he  came 
out.  The  plain  door-posts  were  now  sheathed  with  rich 
carvings  (antepagmenta),  or  adorned  with  intricate  and 
costly  inlaid  work.1  There  were  no  shops,  of  course, 
attached  to  houses  of  such  grandeur;  but  the  rooms  on 
either  side  of  the  entrance  became,  the  one  a  lodge  for  the 
ostiarius,  or  porter,  while  the  other  was  often  used  by 
the  master  of  the  mansion  as  a  species  of  office,  where 
he  received  and  examined  the  accounts  presented  by  the 
stewards  of  his  various  rural  properties,  and  took  the 
money  for  his  valuable  crops.  The  town-palace  of  an 
Italian  nobleman  has,  to  this  day,  a  similar  room  upon 
its  ground-floor  used  for  almost  precisely  the  same 
purposes. 

The  stately  dwelling  we  are  now  considering  had  an 
indefinitely  increased  number  of  living,  withdrawing,  and 
guest  rooms,   opening  off  the  cavaedium  and  peristyle. 

1  See  Verg.  G.  ii.  463. 


36 


«-  p«ivate  LIFE  0F  the  romans 


There  were  bedrooms  for  rest  both  l      , 
(oubtcula  diurna  aml  cubicT      ,      ^  flay  and  by  night 
J*h  different  eXp0Snrt St^T"0  ,"?  ^^-L 
dimensions  to  s„,t  the  var  ouTn"     '  ' ''""'  "^ 

nught  be  entertained.  T  here  ™  *  °f  g"eStS  "hicb 
dances  even  in  -  provincial^  °w  <we  fi°d  i„- 
^eh  case  the  anWior  »?eil)  *W0  Pe^tyles,  i„ 
gallery  (pinacotheca)  and  HI  °  ?  ^^  *°  a  Pic*ure- 
betraying  that  the  fasluon  taH  (WW*>.  ^  names 

The  earliest  privatT    W  If-  ad°Pted  fl'°M  6reece. 
^mingly  intended  as mtt Z  T^  and  ^ 
not  ^  all  as  luxurious         e  57   "T  °f  b°°kS'  ^ 
^creation.     The  walls  we^e  k      f     -1^  w  liferary 
(«*)  or  cases  of  o,    n  sh   '       T^  W  CUPboa'* 
Papyrus  rollS;    and  some  L  ^ IW^  reception  of 
^ptacles  occupied  the    e„  r of  rh       '*   "*  °f  S"eb 
before  Giro's  time  did  **  r°°m-     N«t  much 

Mother     ,  t]le  elegance  of  taf;"   t<5   ™   "ith   one 
and  to  adorn  the  room  with  n  eh  V  aPPoi*tments, 

The  substance  „„  which  ^7!  "^  Statues' 

^written  was  almost  invar  ablv,,fS  °f  ^  time  we« 
Egyptian  papyni8,  JZ^tt  ^  ^  ^  of  *»» 
r^en  together  basket-wise  'Jh"8  fibres  were  first 
flat  surface  and  pressed   i'„to   h      "  Spread  uP«n  some 
Tbe  sheet  thus  obtained  was   °,i  Pr°Per  con^tcncy.       : 

a«d  cut  into  strips  (p^)    ^  ™  the  SU">  "toothed,       j 
one  side  only,  gluedfogeX !  It  if  ^  Witten  UP™       i 
rolled   over   a  hollow   reed      Th         /"^  Mul  ^ 
varzed  from  six  to  thirte   ,  inch'      Wf  h  °f  the  st^ 
page   were   required  it   "  J'  7     *?  *  yet  broader        ' 
gether  lengthwise,   after  Xv  t        *  gMn8  these  to- 
*as  thus  presented  in  LS  T  WritteD-     The  *«t 

parallel  columns  which  were  usu- 


ei 


1-- 


< 


w 


W: 


n>, 


r. 


< 


■ 


\         I 


THE   HOUSE. 


3' 


ally  divided  by  scarlet  lines.  Through  the  hollow  of  the 
reed  ran  a  rod  (iimbilicus),  which  furnished  the  axis  on 
which  the  book  turned  in  rolling  or  unrolling.  The  pro- 
jecting ends  of  this  rod  were  called  the  cornaa,  and  they 
were  often  painted  or  gilded,  or  furnished  with  metal  or 
ivory  nuts.  The  ends  of  the  papyrus  roll  itself  were 
carefully  evened  and  dyed  black;  and  the  outer  covering 
was  of  parchment,  which  was  colored  in  some  brilliant 
hue,  usually  purple  or  yellow,  while  the  title  of  the  book 
was  written  in  scarlet  ink  upon  a  small  separate  slip  of 
parchment  and  attached  to  one  of  the  cornua. 

We  hear  of  instances  in  which  an  entire  work,  like  the 
Iliad  or  the  History  of  Thucydides,  was  copied  upon  a 
single  roll,  that  of  the  historian  being  more  than  eighty- 
eight  yards  long.  But  such  a  book  would,  of  course,  be 
too  unwieldy  for  ordinary  use,  and  the  common  way  was 
to  divide  the  works  of  a  prolific  writer  into  several  rolls, 
or  volumina,  which  were  all 
kept  for  convenience  in  one 
light  cylindrical  wooden 
box,  a  capsa  or  scrinhim, 
somewhat  resembling  a 
modern  band-box.  The  ink 
(atramentum  librarium)  was 
rather  thick,  and  made,  like 
the  ink  of  the  Chinese,  of  lamp-black  or  sepia ;  the  pens 
were  slender  reeds,  or  calami,  cut  and  pointed  like  a 
goose-quill.  After  parchment  came  into  general  use, 
the  custom  of  rolling  was  for  the  most  part  abandoned, 
and  the  pdginae  were  simply  fastened  together  at  the 
back  like  a  modern  book.  Such  an  arrangement  was  and 
is  called  a  codex. 


Writing  Materials. 


38  THE   PRIVATE   LIFE   OF   THE   ROMANS. 

The  domestic  slaves  were  lodged  in  tiny  cells  around 
the  posterior  peristyle,  rather  than  on  the  upper  floor, 
where  the  regular  sleeping-rooms  of  the  family  seem 
usually  to  have  been.  There  would  be  extensive  and 
beautiful  grounds  at  the  rear  of  such  a  mansion,  laid  out 
in  the  perpetual  Italian  taste,  embellished  with  trellises, 
fountains,  and  statues,  and  often  overshadowed  by  mag- 
nificent trees,  like  the  six  ancient  and  enormous  lotus 
trees  in  the  town-gardens  of  the  orator  Crassus  upon  the 
Palatine,  which  were  valued  at  three  million  sesterces, 
or  about  $ 20,000  apiece,  and  which  lived  and  flourished 
until  they  were  consumed  by  Nero's  fire  in  64  a.d. 

In  Rome  and  the  larger  towns,  however,  as  in  modern 
cities,  especially  those  of  the  continent  of  Europe,  the 
detached  dwellings  came  to  be  far  outnumbered  by  the 
Insulae,  or  apartment-houses,  which  were  often  several 
stories  high,  with  shops  upon  the  street  level,  and  lodg- 
ings of  various  grades  behind  and  above.  The  crowded 
tenements  of  the  very  poor  were  to  be  found  in  the 
meaner  of  these  insulae,  while  there  were  others  in  the 
more  expensive  wards  (regiones)  where  young  men  of 
fashion,  like  Cicero's  friend  Cselius,  had  commodious 
apartments,  which  probably  corresponded  very  fairly 
with  the  bachelor  quarters  occupied  by  men  of  the  same 
class  to-day. 

In  trying  to  represent  to  ourselves  more  exactly  the 
interior  aspect  of  a  completely  appointed  Roman  house, 
we  have  first  to  remember  the  rich  effect  of  its  marble- 
,  wainscoted  and  frescoed  walls  ;  the  broad  panels  of  pure 
deep  color,  usually  yellow  or  red,  with  graceful  central 
figures,  and  surrounded  by  brilliant  and  delicate  ara- 
besques,  which  Ave    find    almost  universal    in   Pompeii 


THE    HOUSE.  39 

even  in  houses  of  modest  pretensions.  There  was  color 
also  and  grace  of  design  in  the  various  kinds  of  mosaic 
floors,  of  which  so  many  specimens  are  still  to  be  seen, 
and  though  the  furnishing  of  the  rooms  may  seem  simple 
and  even  scanty  to  our  jumbled  modern  ideas,  the  sepa- 
,  £^ate  pieces  were  for  the  most  part  so  excellent  in  design 
and  so  beautiful  in  workmanship  that  they  well  deserved 
to  be  set  wide  apart  and  relieved,  each  one,  against  an 
artistic  background. 

The  articles  of  furniture  in  common  use  may  be  com- 
prised under  a  very  few  heads  :  lectl,  beds  and  couches  ; 
sedllia,  or  seats ;  ynensae,  tables ;  arcae  and  armaril,  chests 
**  and  cabinets ;  lucernae,  lamps,  whether  standing  or  de- 
pending. 

Couches  included  the  lectl  triclinia/res,  or  low  dining- 
couches  covered  with  tapestry  and  heaped  with  cushions, 
on  which  both  men  and  women  reclined  at  formal  meals ; 
the  lectl  cubiculares,  true  beds  of  rest,  for  slumber  at 
night  or  siesta  by  day;  and  the  lectull  or  lectl  lucubratoril, 
which  had  commonly  two  arms  and  no  back,  and  were 
used  chiefly  for  reading  or  writing  at  night,  when  the 
student  reclined  his  back  against  one  of  the  arms  and 
supported  his  tablet  or  manuscript  upon  one  uplifted 
knee.  And  since  it  was  thus  that  inveterate  letter- 
writers  like  Cicero  and  the  younger  Pliny  carried  on 
most  of  their  correspondence,  this  may  be  as  good  a 
place  as  any  other  in  which  to  describe  the  form  of  the 
Roman  letter. 

The  tablets  in  question  were  light,  rectangular  boards 
with  slightly  elevated  frames,  like  a  modern  slate,  and 
they  were  spread  with  a  thin  coating  of  wax,  on  which 
written  characters  were  traced  with  a  stilus,  or  pointed 


40  THE   PRIVATE   LIFE    OF   THE    ROMANS. 

stick  of  wood  or  ivory.  One  such  tablet  would  serve  for 
the  jotting  down  of  hurried  notes,  or  for  a  schoolboy's 
exercise.  A  lengthy  letter  was  composed  of  several, 
united  at  the  back,  like  the  leaves  of  a  codex  or  a  modern 
book,  by  means  of  straps  or  strings  passed  through  holes 
in  the  frame.  The  inner  tablets  might  be  waxed  and 
written  upon  both  sides ;  the  outer,  upon  the  inside  only. 
They  were  bound  together  by  a  strong  cord,  which  for 
greater  security  was  passed  through  one  or  more  holes 
bored  in  the  tablet  itself ;  the  ends  of  the  cord  were  fas- 
tened down  with  wax,  which  was  imprinted  with  the 
writer's  seal,  and  the  message  was  conveyed  to  its  desti- 
nation by  a  tabellarius,  or  letter-carrier.  In  later  times 
these  rather  unwieldy  tablets  were  superseded  by  sheets 
of  papyrus. 

The    frames    of    the    various    kinds    of    couches    were 
regularly  made  of  wood,   often   carved   or   inlaid  with 

ivory  or  brass,  and  supported 
sometimes  upon  ivory  feet. 
The  frames  were  strung 
with  girths  or  bands  (fas- 
ciae, lor  a),  on  which  were 
laid  a  mattress  (torus)  and 
a  bolster  (cervical)  smdvestes 
Lectus  orbicularis.  stragulae,  or    coverings,    of 

more  or  less  magnificence. 
Beds  for  slumber,  though  tolerably  broad,  were  open 
for  the  most  part  upon  one  side  only,  being  provided 
with  a  tall  back  and  arms,  like  an  old-fashioned  sofa ; 
J  and  they  stood  higher  upon  their  carved  or  elaborately 
turned  legs  than  even  the  four-posters  of  our  own  an- 
cestors,  insomuch    that   they   could    only   be  scaled    by 


THE    HOUSE.  41 

help  of  a  footstool,  or  even  a  step-ladder.  Bedsteads 
of  bronze  and  even  of  the  precious  metals  were  used 
in  later  times ;  and  seats  and  chairs  were  made  of  all 
these  different  materials  and  often  decorated  with  great 
luxury,  while  in  form  they  ranged  from  the  simple  sub- 
sellium,  or  four-legged  stool,  to  the  cathedra,  or  deep, 
commodious  chair,  like  that  in  which  the  elder  Agrip- 
pina  may  be  seen  sitting  with  so  much  grace  and  dignity 
in  the  museum  of  the  Capitol  at  Rome,  or  Livia,  the 
exquisitely  beautiful,  in  the  seclusion  of  the  Torlonia 
gallery. 

Under  the  general  head  of  tables  were  included  the 
abacus,  or  side-board,  in  shape  somewhat  like  a  pier  or 
console  table,  the  mensa  delphica,  or  three-legged  table, 
and  tiie  monojiodium,  supported  on  a  single  standard  in 
the  centre.  Tables  of  the  latter  shape  were  often  small, 
extremely  precious  in  material,  and  elegant  in  design ; 
and  one  such  formed  part  of  the  furniture  of  every 
decent  bedroom,  and  supported,  from  the  time  when 
candles  of  tallow  or  wax  went  somewhat  out  of  fashion, 
one  of  the  boat-shaped  oil  lamps  of  pottery  or  bronze, 
with  gracefully  turned  handle  (ansa)'  at  one  end,  and 
at  the  other  an  opening  (rostrum,  ndsus)  for  the  wick 
(ellychnium) ,  which  abound  in  Pompeii  and  in  existing 
tombs.  A  candelabrum  was  a  tall  slender  stand  of  wood 
or  metal,  usually  provided  with  three  claw  feet  which 
rested  on  the  floor.  In  shape  and  size  it  corresponded 
with  the  standard  of  a  piano-lamp  of  the  present  day. 
which,  indeed,  is  often  exactly  copied  from  it.  The 
candelabrum  carried  atop  either  a  small  tray  for  sup- 
porting such  a  lamp  as  has  been  already  described,  or 
a  spike  for  a  large  wax  candle,  like  an  altar  candlestick. 


42 


THE   PRIVATE    LIFE    OF    THE    ROMANS. 


A  shorter  kind  of  candelabrum,  often  very  elaborately- 
wrought,  stood  upon  a  chest  or  sideboard,  and  had  two 
or  more  branches  from  which  small  hanging  lamps  were 
suspended. 


Bronze  Lamp. 

The  chest  and  the  cabinet  offered,  as  they  have  always 
done,  a  favorable  field  for  the  most  elaborate  and  costly 
decoration;  and  these  massive  articles  doubtless  pos- 
sessed in  a  handsome  Roman  house  exactly  the  impor- 
tance which  they  still  retain  in  grand  Italian  interiors. 

The  table-ware  of  the  affluent  had  become,  in  the  last 
days  of  the  republic,  extraordinarily  luxurious.  Some- 
thing more  will  be  said  upon  this  head  in  the  chapter 
on  food.  Here  it  may  suffice  to  remark  that,  to  judge 
by  the  revelations  of  Pompeii,  almost  every  household 
implement  in  daily  use  at  the  time  of  the  catastrophe 
had  an  artistic  significance  due  to  the  beauty  of  its 
design,  over  and  above  its  practical  value.  But  the 
fashion  of  these  articles  was  to  some  extent  exotic. 
Their  shapes  were  borrowed  from  the  booty  taken  in 
foreign  conquest,  or  else  they  were  the  handiwork  of 


DAILY    LIFE.  43 

Greek  captives,  or  of  artisans  who  had  learned  their 
methods  from  them. 

In  primitive  Roman  times  the  day  was  divided  in  the 
simplest  manner,  so  as  to  meet  the  needs  and  facili- 
tate the  labors  of  the  tiller  of  the  soil.  The  husband- 
man rose  at  sunrise,  worked  a  certain  number  of  hours 
/  before  his  morning  meal,  returned  to  the  field  after  this, 
and  worked  until  noontide,  when  he  ate  again  and  slept 
awhile,  arising  refreshed  for  another  period  of  labor  in 
the  cool  of  the  afternoon,  which  lasted  until  sunset 
and  supper-time.  Relief  to  the  monotony  of  this  daily 
round  came  in  the  shape  of  numerous  holidays,  both 
public  and  private.  To  the  former  class  belonged  the 
general  celebrations,  bearing  more  or  less  of  a  religious 
character,  like  the  Compitalia  in  January,  the  Matro- 
nalia  in  March,  the  Vinalia  Rustica  in  August,  and  the 
Saturnalia  in  December;  to  the  latter,  all  the  birthday, 
betrothal,  wedding,  house-warming,  and  iSTew  Year's  gath- 
erings, with  their  appropriate  suppers  and  sacrifices,  and 
exchange  of  gifts  and  congratulations,  as  well  as  the 
reception  given  when  a  youth  assumed  the  garb  of  man- 
hood, and  the  banquets  already  noted  in  commemoration 
of  the  dead. 

But  with  the  rise  of  great  towns,  the  growth  of  com- 
merce and  manufactures,  the  introduction  of  new  indus- 
tries, and  of  new  diversions  also,  and  the  ever-increasing 
complexity  and  expense  of  existence,  the  old  bucolic 
arrangement  of  the  day  passed  wholly  out  of  date,  espe- 
cially among  the  so-called  privileged  classes,  insomuch 
that  in  the  time  of  Nero  we  find  a  would-be  philosopher 
like  Seneca  complaining1  that,  whereas  human  occupa- 

1  Sen.  Ep.  cxxii.  10. 


44  THE   PRIVATE   LIFE    OF   THE   ROMANS. 

tions  used  to  be  regulated  by  natural  laws,  now  the  ob- 
ject appeared  to  be  to  make  one's  habits  as  artificial  as 
possible.  Daybreak,  he  says,  is  bedtime.  As  evening 
approaches  we  begin  to  show  signs  of  activity.  Toward 
morning  we  dine.  " Nor  oportet  id  facere  quod  populus" 
"  Come  what  may,  we  mustn't  do  as  the  common  people 
do." 

Up  to  the  time  when  the  first  sun-dial  appeared  in 
Rome,  263  B.C.,  there  was  no  division  of  the  day  into 
hours;  and  even  after  this  the  Romans  continued  to 
make  a  distinction  between  the  natural  and  the  civil 
day.  The  former  was  reckoned  from  midnight  to  mid- 
night —  twenty-four  hours ;  the  latter  from  sunrise  to 
sunset — twelve  hours.  Practically,  the  period  of  daylight 
still  fell  into  the  four  natural  divisions  established  by 
the  necessities  of  rural  life,  of  morning,  forenoon,  after- 
noon, and  evening;  while  the  four  military  watches 
(vigiliae)  measured  the  night.  But  in  the  course  of 
the  ensuing  century,  sun-dials  (solaria)  and  hour-glasses 
(clepsydrae),  whether  for  sand  or  water,  came  into  gen- 
eral use  ;  and  some  sort  of  time-keeper,  or  horologium  —  a 
name  which  comprised  both  dials  and  hour-glasses  —  was 
to  be  found,  not  merely  upon  all  public  squares  and  build- 
ings, but  in  every  private  house.  There  was  this  great 
difference,  however,  between  the  Roman  measurement  of 
time  and  our  own  —  an  hour  was  not  a  fixed  period  of  un- 
varying length.  It  was  always  considered  as  the  twelfth 
part  of  the  time  from  sunrise  to  sunset,  and  again  of  that 
from,sunset  to  sunrise.  The  hours  of  a  winter  day  were 
therefore  actually  short,  while  those  of  a  summer  day 
l.  were  long;  the  converse,  of  course,  being  true  of  the 
nights.     At  the  equinoxes,  when  the  days  and  nights 


DAILY   LIFE.  45 

were  of  the  same  length,  a  Roman  hour  contained  sixty 
of  our  minutes.  At  the  summer  solstice  the  hours  of 
the  day  contained  seventy-five  and  a  half,  and  at  the 
winter  solstice  forty-four  and  a  half  minutes.  In  the 
former  case  day  began  at  4.27  a.m.,  according  to  our 
reckoning,  and  ended  at  7.33  p.m.  ;  in  the  latter  it  began 
at  7.33  and  ended  at  4.27.  This  peculiarity  must  always 
be  borne  in  mind,  when  one  would  fix  in  the  memory  the 
hour  at  which  a  given  event  occurred. 

Seneca's  lament  to  the  contrary  notwithstanding,  the 
t  Romans  were  for  the  most  part  early  risers.  Only  the 
idle  and  the  very  luxurious,  or  those  who  had  to  sleep 
off  the  debauch  of  the  previous  night,  were  wont  to  lie  in 
bed  even  until  broad  daylight.  Artisans  and  shop-keepers 
went  to  their  work  by  candle-light.  Men  of  letters,  like 
Cicero,  Horace,  the  elder  Pliny,  the  Emperor  Marcus 
Aurelius,  preferred  to  all  others  the  hours  before  sun- 
rise for  reading  and  writing.  The  schools  began  at  a 
very  early  hour,1  so  did  theatrical  representations  (prima 
luce),  and  all  the  family  festivals  already  noted;  and  in 
Christian  times  the  daily  morning  service  in  the  churches. 
The  courts  of  justice  sat  from  the  third  to  the  tenth  hour; 
that  is,  roughly,  from  seven  to  five  in  summer  and  nine 
to  four  in  winter.  On  the  days  of  general  election,  the 
comitia  began,  or,  as  we  should  say,  the  polls  opened  at 
sunrise,  and  did  not  close  till  dusk.  The  sessions  of  the 
Senate  also  began  early  and  continued  till  sunset. 

In  primitive  times  the  master  of  the  house  expected 
to  receive  good-morrow  from  his  children  and  servants 

\i  1  "  Up,"  says  Martial,  in  the  last  epigram  of  his  fourteenth  book  ; 
"  for  the  baker  is  selling  the  schoolboys  their  breakfast,  and  chan- 
ticleer proclaims  the  dawn." 


46  THE    PRIVATE    LIFE   OF    THE   ROMANS. 

at  daybreak,  after  which  he  offered  the  morning  sacrifice, 
and  then  assigned  to  his  various  people  their  duties  for 
the  day.  A  reminiscence  of  this  custom  appears  always 
to  have  survived  in  certain  of  the  old  families,  and  it  was 
adopted  in  the  strictly  ordered  households  of  the  Antonine 
Caesars.  Out  of  it  grew  the  ceremonious  salutatio  of  late 
republican  and  early  imperial  times,  the  self-interested 
compliments  of  the  morning  offered  to  an  influential  cit- 
izen by  the  clients  and  other  lesser  folk,  who  thronged 
his  hall  and  competed  for  his  favor;  and  the  earlier  the 
salutatio  could  be  made,  the  better.  We  read  therefore 
of  the  Roman  streets  being  alive  before  light  in  winter 
with  the  hurrying  figures  of  carefully  attired  clients, 
who  elbowed  one  another  in  the  stately  vestibule  of  their 
patron,  until  the  doors  were  flung  open  into  the  atrium, 
where  he  stood  to  receive  them.  They  then  defiled  be- 
fore him,  each  making  his  bow  and  uttering  his  ave, 
domine,  to  which  the  magnate  responded  by  a  hand-shake 
and  a  word  of  courtesy  —  sometimes  by  a  kiss.  He 
made  a  point  of  addressing  each  man  by  name,  and  if 
he  hesitated  for  one  instant,  he  was  prompted  by  the 
nomenclator  at  his  ear,  a  slave  whose  business  it  was 
to  know  the  proper  appellation  of  every  person  present. 

Before  going  through  with  this  wearisome  performance 
the  patron  had  probably  taken  his  ientaculum,  or  first* 
breakfast,  in  the  privacy  of  his  own  chamber.  The 
client  would  have  to  snatch  his  where  he  could  in  pass- 
ing from  one  house  to  another,  —  for  many  paid  their 
daily  court  to  more  than  one  great  man,  —  often  doubt- 
less in  the  bakeries  or  cake-shops  patronized  by  the 
schoolboys.  This  first  meal  of  the  day  was  invariably, 
-tas  it  still  is  in  Latin  countries,  a  very  simple  one.     It 


DAILY    LI  IK.  47 

consisted  of  bread  with  salt,  or  dipped  in  wine,  olives  or 
dates,  possibly  honey,  and  a  bit  of  cheese.  Hearty  food, 
such  as  warm  and  cold  meats,  fish,  vegetables,  fresh  fruit, 
and  wine,  was  rarely  taken  much  before  mid-day.  In 
early  times,  and  always  among  the  farming  population, 
this  mid-day  meal  constituted  the  cena,  the  dinner,  or 
principal  meal  of  the  day.  while  a  supper,  or  vesperna, 
was  served  in  the  evening  after  work  was  done.  The 
exigencies  of  city  life  caused  the  noon  cena  to  be  replaced 
by  the  prandium,  lunch  or  second  breakfast,  consisting 
indeed  of  much  the  same  sort  of  viands,  while  the  dinner, 
or  cena  proper,  became  vastly  more  elaborate,  and  was 
deferred  until  toward  evening. 

Three  meals  a  day  were  perhaps  the  rule  among  the 
well-to-do.  yet  physicians  often  counselled  only  two,  ex- 
cept for  the  old  and  weak,  and  many  city-folk  —  even  the 
comparatively  affluent  —  confined  themselves  to  a  pran- 
dium,  taken  about  eleven  o'clock,  and  a  late  cena.  The 
natural  Roman  appears  to  have  been,  like  the  average 
Italian  of  to-day.  an  abstemious  creature.  Only  the  wan- 
ton and  extravagant  gourmands  of  the  decadence  dreamed 
of  adding  to  the  interminable  courses  and  fantastic  lux- 
ury of  their  cena  a  late  supper,  or  comfesatid,  served 
often  in  the  "  wee  sma'  hours  ayant  the  twal'." 

After  the  prandium,  the  world  retired  for  its  meridi- 
atio,  or  mid-day  slumber.  This  custom  was  well-nigh  a 
universal  one.  It  belonged  both  to  city  and  to  country 
life,  and  dated  from  the  earliest  historic  period.  'Only 
the  Senate  and  the  courts  took  no  recess  at  noon,  and 
even  there  we  may  believe  that,  save  in  times  of  high 
excitement,  business  went  on  but  drowsily.  It  was  dur- 
ing this  hour  of  gene'ral  repose,  which,  by  the  way.  was 


48  THE   PRIVATE   LIFE    OF    THE   ROMANS. 

deemed  only  less  favorable  than  midnight  for  the  see- 
ing of  spectres,  that  Alaric  surprised  Rome  in  the  year 
410  A.D. 

Refreshed  by  his  merldidtid,  the  Roman  of  highly  civ- 
ilized times  rose  and  proceeded  directly  to  that  capital 
|  event  of  the  day,  his  bath.  The  ringing  of  a  bell  an- 
/  nonnced  the  opening  of  the  great  public  baths,  bahieae 
or  thermae,  but  it  does  not  come  within  the  scope  of  this 
work  to  describe  minutely  these  characteristic  institu- 
tions of  ancient  Rome.  They  were  vast  in  extent,  intri- 
cate in  structure,  and  enormously  costly,  and  they  tended, 
as  time  went  on,  to  become  always  more  and  more  artistic 
and  luxurious  in  their  arrangements.  Yet  the  price  of 
admission,  even  to  the  most  splendid  of  these  establish- 
ments, was  so  trifling  that  they  were  virtually  open  to 
all,  —  a  qaadrans,  or  quarter-  as  (that  is  to  say  less  than 
one  cent)  for  a  man,  and  two  for  a  woman,  while  children 
as  a  rule  were  admitted  free. 

There  were  usually  separate  departments  for  men  and 
women,  but  there  were  porticos  and  gardens  adjoining  all 
the  great  bahieae,  where  bathers  of  both  sexes  might 
meet  and  gossip  after  the  bath  was  over^-as  in  the  casino 
of  a  modern  watering-place  ;  and  to  the  thermae,  at  least, 
were  often  attached  libraries  and  fine  art  galleries, 
palaestrae  for  gymnastic  exercise,  and  sphaeristeria,  or 
courts  for  playing  ball. 

The  plain,  private  dwelling  of  an  earlier  period  had 
possessed  merely  a  common  lavatrma,  or  wash-room, 
situated  near  the  kitchen  for  convenience  of  introducing 
both  hot  and  cold  water,  and  where  the  different  mem- 
bers of  the  family  took  turns  in  performing  their  simple 
ablutions.     But  subsequently,  after  the  bath  had  come  to 


DAILY   LIFE. 


49 


be  regarded  as  the  greatest  of  luxuries,  it  was  customary 
to  have  a  balnearium,  or  miniature  bathing  establishment, 
somewhat  on  the  plan  of  the  great  balneae,  attached  to 
every  private  house,  and  especially  to  every  country 
house  having  any  pretensions  to  splendor.  Traces  of 
such  are  to  be  found  all  over  Europe,  wherever  the 
Roman  rule  extended,  for  Roman  governors  and  other 
high  officials  made  a  point  of  carrying  with  them  into 
their  provincial  exile  the  personal  habits  of  the  capital. 
A  private  bath  of  this  kind,  small  but  remarkably  well 


Roman    Bath,  from  Ancient   Painting. 

preserved,  dating  from  the  time  of  Constantine  the  Great, 
was  discovered  in  1855,  at  Caerwent,  in  Wales,  and  may 
be  taken  as  a  type  of  them  all.  It  was  very  nearly  square 
in  shape,  and  its  entire  dimensions  were  only  thirty-one 
Roman  feet  by  thirty-four.  The  included  space  was, 
however,  divided  into  the  usual  rooms,  or  cellae,  —  viz.  an 
apodyterium  for  undressing,  a  tepidarium  provided  with 
seats  for  the  hot  air  or  vapor  bath,  a  caldarium  with  a 
large  tub  for  the  hot-water  bath,  and  a  frlgidarium  for 
the  cold-water  bath. 

A  bather  was  twice  rubbed  down  by  attendant  slaves, 


1NTIVERSITY 


50  THE    PRIVATE    LIFE    OF   THE    ROMANS. 

once  after  the  vapor  or  sweating  bath,  and  again  after  the 
cold  bath,  and  after  the  latter  he  was  also  anointed.  In 
more  elaborate  establishments  there  were  separate  rooms 
for  these  processes,  the  destrictarium  and  unctorium. 

The  private  bath  in  question  was  heated  on  the  same 
principle  as  the  great  thermae,  that  is  to  say,  by  means 
of  a  furnace  (hypocaustum,  fomax)  provided  with  pipes, 
through  which  heated  air  was  conducted  underneath  the 
floors  and  between  the  walls  of  the  different  rooms.  The 
floors  were  double,  the  upper  one  being  supported  on 
pillars  of  clay  piping  about  two  feet  high.  The  interven- 
ing space  was  made  intensely  hot,  and  the  whole  ingen- 
ious arrangement  was  termed  a  suspensura,  and  is  claimed 
by  Cicero  as  the  invention  of  one  of  his  own  early  friends, 
Gaius  Sergius  Orata.  The  heat  was  graduated  for  the 
different  cellae  by  their  relative  distance  from  the  central 
furnace,  and  the  varying  thickness  of  their  upper  floors. 
The  caldarium  was  situated  nearest  the  fire,  the  apody- 
terium  farthest  from  it  of  the  heated  rooms,  and  the  suc- 
cession of  hot-air,  hot-water,  and  cold-water  baths  was 
the  order  regularly  observed  in  bathing  establishments  of 
every  grade. 

-V  About  an  hour  after  the  bath  came  the  cena,  or  princi- 
pal meal  of  the  day.  Once  it  had  been  served  in  the 
atrium  and  had  consisted,  save  upon  state  occasions, 
chiefly  of  bread  or  porridge,  and  vegetables.  The  father 
and  mother  and  other  adult  members  of  the  family  sat 
•  at  table,  while  children  and  servants  occupied  stools  or 
benches  at  their  feet  or  behind  them.  Long  before  the 
close  of  the  republican  period,  however,  the  cena,  or 
dinner,  had  developed  into  as  dainty  a  meal  as  the 
means  of  the  householder  would  permit;  separate  din- 


DAILY   LIFE. 


51 


ing-rooms  were  found  indispensable  in  a  life  of  the 
slightest  elegance,  and  the  custom  of  reclining  at  table 
had  become  universal  among  the  well-to-do.  Columella 
lays  it  down  as  a  rule  that  a  farm-bailiff  should  recline 
at  his  meals  upon  high  holidays  only,  and  Plutarch,  in 
his  life  of  the  younger  Cato,  tells  us  that  the  latter  — 
always  a  bit  of  a  fanatic  —  insisted,  by  way  of  self- 
mortification,  on  sitting  at  table  throughout  the  period 
of  mourning  which  followed  the  battle  of  Pharsalia. 

The  ordinary  dining-table  was  square,  surrounded  on 
three  sides  by  the  same  number  of  one-armed  couches, 
while  the  fourth  side  remained  open  for  convenience  of 

■  j^  serving.    Each  of  these  three  couches  accommodated  three 

-  persons,  who  reclined 
upon  the  left  arm, 
supported,  the  one  by 
the  arm  of  the  couch, 
the  other  two  by  heaps 
of  cushions,  and  al- 
ways with  the  feet 
turned  outward.  In 
the  assignment  of 
places  a  strict  eti- 
quette prevailed.  The 
couches,  or  lecti,  all 
more  or  less  handsomely  draped,  were  distinguished  as 
meclius,  or  the  one  which  stood  opposite  the  open  side 
of  the  table;  summits,  the  couch  adjoining  the  head  of 
the  meclius;  and  imus,  that  upon  the  other  side.  The 
meclius  and  the  summus  were  assigned  to  guests ;  the 
imus  accommodated  the  master  of  the  house,  his  wife, 
and  one  of  the  elder  children  or  a  favorite   freedman. 


med 

ius  ieciu 

s 

A 

A 
A 
A 

Y 

y 

a 

CO 

6 

mensa 

Co 

CO 


Co 


From  Kiessling's  edition  of  Horace. 


52  THE    PRIVATE   LIEE   OF   THE   ROMANS. 

The  medius  was  the  couch  of  honor,  and  the  highest 
place  upon  it,  as  also  upon  the  other  couches,  was  the 
one  nearest  the  arm.  The  third  place,  or  that  at  the 
foot  of  the  lectus  medius,  was,  however,  called  the  locus 
consularis,  and  was  usually  assigned  to  the  most  impor- 
tant public  officer  present,  both  for  convenience  in  the 
matter  of  receiving  and  sending  messages  and  despatches, 
and  because  it  brought  him  next  the  host,  who  leaned 
upon  the  arm  of  the  imus,  or  lowest  couch.  Nine  was 
the  full  number  that  could  be  properly  served  at  such  a 
table ;  a  place  might  be  vacant,  but  to  crowd  a  couch 
with  more  than  three  people  was  considered  the  height 
of  vulgarity.  Large  parties  of  guests  were  entertained 
in  spacious  dining-halls,  or  sometimes  in  summer  in  the 
pleasant  solaria,  or  open  loggie,  on  the  roofs  of  the  houses, 
at  separate  small  tables,  each  accommodating  the  ortho- 
dox number. 

*•  Round  tables  with  couches  fitted  so  as  to  form  a  semi- 
circle came  into  fashion  in  Cicero's  time  —  extravagant 
objects,  for  which  men  paid  an  insane  price.  They 
were  made  of  rare  imported  woods,  preferably  from  a 
slab  or  section  of  the  massive  trunk  of  the  so-called 
citron-tree,  a  species  of  African  cypress,  very  beautifully 
mottled,  and  the  most  admired  were  supported  on  a 
single  pedestal  of  solid  ivory.  Cicero  himself  had  one 
such  for  which  he  paid  500,000  HS.  The  philosVpher 
Seneca  is  said  to  have  possessed  five  hundred.  The 
couches  of  this  luxurious  period  had  often  silver  feet, 
and  were  inlaid  wjth  the  same  precious  metal  or  with 
ivory  and  tortoise-shell.  The  custom  had  likewise  been 
introduced  from  the  East  of  hanging  the  walls  of  the 
dining-room    with    richly    embroidered   stuffs,    and    the 


DAILY    LIFE.  53 

most  sumptuous  of  all  had  a  very  peculiar  arrangement 
of  the  coffered  ceiling.  It  had  long  been  the  fashion  to 
construct  this  of  cross-beams,  the  square,  sunken  spaces, 
or  lacunaria,  between  which  were  carved,  gilded,  or 
otherwise  ornamented.  These  lacunaria  were  now  made 
in  the  form  of  sliding  panels,  which  could  be  withdrawn 
for  the  purpose  of  scattering  flowers,  or  trifling  keep- 
sakes for  the  guests,  upon  the  table. 

~f-  Mantelia,  or  table-cloths,  came  into  use  much  later  than 
napkins  (mappae),  which  last  the  fashion  of  eating  ren- 
dered rather  a  necessity  than  a  luxury,  and  they  were 
either  brought  by  the  guest  or  his  personal  attendant,  or 
offered  him  by  the  servants  of  his  host. 
.  The  tricliniarii,  or  dining-room  servants,  were  under 
the  supervision  of  a  tricliniarch.es,  or  butler,  and  the 'finer 
the  establishment,  the  more  numerous  they  were.  It 
was  their  business  to  arrange  the  room  for  the  feast,  to 
set  forth  upon  the  abaci,  or  sideboards,  the  imposing 
array  of  silver,  gold,  glass,  and  jewelled  vessels,  for  both 
eating  and  drinking,  which  would  be  required  in  the 
course  of  the  meal,  and  accurately  to  place  in  the  centre 
of  the  table  its  principal  ornament,  the  massive  sail n urn, 

^  or  salt-cellar.  This  article,  which  even  the  compara- 
tively poor  contrived  to  have  made  of  silver,  possessed 
a  certain  sacred  significance ;  inasmuch  as  every  table 
was  consecrated  to  the  gods,  and  the  sail nxm  contained 
not  merely  salt  for  seasoning  the  viands,  but  a  tray 
(patella)  for  the  molae  salsae,  or  sacrificial  cakes,  which 
were  offered  to  the  Lares,  and  then  probably  broken  and 
distributed,  as  a  kind  of  grace,  after  meat.  Silver  vessels 
for  vinegar-  and  oil  also  formed  a  part  of  the  permanent 
furniture  of  every  handsome  board.    The  carving  and  cut- 


54 


PRIVATE   LIFE   OF    THE    ROMANS. 


che  meats  was  done  at  side-tables ;  the  meal  was 
ed  in  courses  (fercula),  which  were  brought  in  by 
.lie  servants  on  trays  (rejjositdria) ,  which  had  sometimes 
two  or  three  shelves  or  stories,  and  were  presented  to  the 
guests  from  behind.  The  wine-cups  were  replenished  in 
like  manner,  "over  the  shoulder,"  and  these  admitted 
some  variety  in  form,  but  were  usually  shallow,  with  two 
handles,  and  often  very  beautiful  in  workmanship. 

The  implements  actually  used  in  eating  were  few  and 

simple,  only  the  right  hand 
of  the  guest  being  free  to 
wield  them.  They  con- 
sisted chiefly  of  two  kinds 
of  spoons,  the  Ugula  and 
the  cochlear.  The  former 
was  shaped  very  much  like 
our  own  table-spoon,  the 
latter  had  a  much  smaller 
bowl,  circular  in  shape,  and 
flat  or  only  slightly  hol- 
lowed, and  the  handle  was 
pointed  for  convenience  in 
detaching  the  meat  of  shell- 
fish, or  picking  up  particles 
of  food.  Knives  and  forks 
were  certainly  not  employed  in  Rome  as  table  implements 
before  the  second  century  of  our  era. 

A  handsome  dinner  was  served  in  three  principal  divis- 
ions, each  of  which  might  consist  of  several  fercula,  or 
courses.  The  introductory  part  was  called  the  gustus,  or 
gustatio,  and  its  object  was  merely  to  whet  the  appetites 
of  the  diners  for  the  richer  food  to  follow.     It  consisted 


Spoon? 


DAILY   LIFE.  55 

mainly  of  eggs,  pickled  vegetables,  salads  in  great 
variety,  oysters,  raw  or  cooked,  salted  fish,  mushrooms, 
artichokes,  asparagus,  or  melons,  eaten  with  salt  and 
pepper.  A  beverage,  midsum,  compounded  of  honey  and 
must,  was  often  served  with  the  gustatio. 

The  main  part  of  the  meal  which  followed  fell  also 
into  three  divisions,  —  the  prima,  altera,  and  tertia  cena. 
It  consisted  of  fish,  meats,  and  game,  both  native  and 
foreign,  cooked  with  endless  varieties  of  seasoning,  — 
salt,  pepper,  ginger,  cinnamon,  sweet  herbs,  and  wine. 
The  fish  was  usually  served  with  a  costly  imported  sauce 
(garum),  prepared  with  salt  water,  of  which  the  flavor 
was  highly  prized.  Some  of  the  viands  were  eaten 
steaming  hot ;  others  had  to  be  cooled  with  ice  or  snow 
before  they  were  deemed  truly  palatable. 

There  was  a  pause  after  this  portion  of  the  meal  was 
concluded,  during  which  the  mqla^scUsa^ already  men- 
tioned, was  offered  to  the  Lares,  after  which  the  secuncla 
mensa,  or  dessert,  was  brought  in.  It  consisted  of  pastry, 
confectionery,  and  fruit,  both  home  grown  and  imported, 
and  concluded  the  banquet  proper  —  whence  the  expres- 
sion, "  ab  ovo  ad  mala,"  from  the  egg  to  the  apples, 
became  proverbial  for  the  whole  of  anything,  from  the 
beginning  to  the  end. 

Wine  was  taken  in  moderation  with  all  the  courses, 
rarely  clear,  sometimes  iced,  but  oftener  mixed  with 
warm  water.  The  business  of  regular  drinking  began 
only  after  the  dessert  had  been  removed.  Those  who 
affected  Greek  fashions  were  now  perfumed  and  crowned 
with  garlands.  The  wine  was  no  longer  mixed  to  taste, 
in  the  separate  pocula  of  the  guests,  but  in  a  huge  vase, 
or  crater,  whence  it  was  ladled  out  by  the  servants  in 


56  THE   PRIVATE   LIFE   OF   THE   ROMANS. 

cyathi,  one-handled  cnps  or  ladles.  The  cyathus  was  the 
unit  of  measure  for  a  systematic  drinker,  who,  though  he 
often  used  a  goblet  of  the  capacity  of  several  cyathi, 
always  reckoned  his  feats  by  the  number  of  the  latter 
which  he  consumed. 

The  comissatio,  or  late  supper  of  high-livers,  which 
has  been  already  mentioned,  was  little  more  than  a 
drinking-bout.  It  was  enlivened,  as  was  also  the  cena, 
by  the  performance  of  hired  musicians,  mimes,  and 
dancers ;  but  conversation,  though  it  found  a  place,  at 
least  in  the  earlier  meal,  was  never  in  Rome  the  fine  art 
and  the  main  entertainment  that  we  find  it  among  the 
Greeks. 


CHILDREN. 


TY 


CHAPTER   III. 
CHILDREN,   SLAVES,   GUESTS,   CLIENTS,   FREEDMEN. 

The  lustratio,  or  naming  with  religious  rites,  of  a  boy 
infant  whom  his  father  had  formally  acknowledged, 
occurred  on  the  ninth  day  after  his  birth,  a  girl's  upon 
the  eighth.  A  sacrifice  was  offered  for  the  child  upon  the 
family  altar,  or  it  was  presented  in  one  or  more  of  the 
temples  of  the  gods  and  recommended  to  their  especial 
protection.  As  a  defence  against  the  evil  eye  and  such 
mysterious  ills,  there  was  also  hung  round  the  baby's 
neck  by  a  ribbon  or  chain,  a  small  locket,  usually 
heart-shaped  or  circular,  sometimes  crescent  or  cru- 
ciform, made  of  gold  if  the  parents  were  wealthy, 
otherwise  of  some  inferior  material,  and  containing  an 
amulet'. 

This  was  the  bulla,  of  which  so  many  specimens  are 
to  be  seen  in  various  museums,  and  which  never  fails  in 
the  picture  of  a  well-born  lad.  The  custom  was  prob- 
ably of  Etruscan  origin,  and  applied  originally  to  the 
children  of  patricians  only ;  but  it  was  subsequently 
extended  to  those  of  knights  and  of  the  official  nobility 
generally.  A  boy  wore  his  bulla  constantly  until  he 
received  the  gown  of  manhood;  a  girl  hers  until  her 
marriage.  But  the  ornament  was  always  carefully  cher- 
ished and  occasionally  resumed,  and  it  is  a  curious  fact 


58 


THE   PRIVATE    LIFE   OF    THE    ROMANS. 


that  a  triumphdtor  invariably  put  on  his  bulla  upon  the 
great  day  of  his  public  glorification,  as  a  protection 
against  the  envy  of  his  fellow-citizens.     There  was  no 

such  thing  as  a  pub- 
lic registry  of  births, 
for  civic  purposes,  be- 
fore the  time  of  Mar- 
cus Aurelius ;  but  a 
private  record  of  the 
lustratio  appears,  in 
most  cases,  to  have 
been  kept,  and  was 
sometimes  appealed 
to  for  purposes  of 
identification. 

The  child  received 
its  first  instruction  at 
home.  Either  the 
mother  was  the 
teacher,  or,  in  cases 
where  several  mar- 
ried sons  lived  on  under  the  paternal  roof,  some  f reed- 
woman  or  female  relative  of  the  family  acted  as  nursery 
governess  to  all  the  little  ones.  In  this  manner  they 
were  taught  reading,  writing,  the  elements  of  arithmetic 
and  of  the  laws.  "When  we  were  boys,"  says  Cicero,1 
"  we  had  to  learn  the  Twelve  Tables  by  heart  like  a 
species  of  hymn.  Nobody  does  it  now." 
^But  far  more  important  than  even  his  modicum  of 
book-learning,  was  held,  at  least  in  all  the  olden  time, 
that  practical   education  which  the   child  received   by 

i  Cic.  De  Lee-,  ii.  23.  M 


Bulla. 


UWVERSJTY  ! 

OF 


CHILDREN.  50. 

association  with  his  elders,  and  admission,  as  he  grew 
older,  to  their  activities. 

Thus  the  girl  learned  at  her  mother's  side  to  spin, 
to  weave,  and  to  sew ;  the  boy,  of  his  father  or  elder 
brothers,  the  mysteries  of  planting  and  harvesting, 
swimming,  riding,  boxing,  and  the  use  of  weapons.  If 
the  father  were  a  flamen,  or  priest,  the  son  was  early 
trained  to  assist  at  sacrifices  as  his  cam  ill  us,  or  bearer 
of  the  sacred  vessels.  If  the  mother  offered  a  sacrifice, 
her  daughter  acted  as  Camilla.  Were  the  father  of  a 
station  to  receive  clients  in  his  atrium,  his  boys  stood 
beside  him  during  the  ceremony,  and  so  learned  to  know 
the  names  and  faces  of  his  political  and  social  following. 
On  days  of  family  triumph  or  mourning,  when  the 
shrines  were  opened,  and  the  images  of  the  ancestors 
displayed,  the  children  were  always  present.  They  took 
part  in  the  family  meals,  when  these  were  simple  and 
there  were  no  guests,  and  sometimes  they  helped  serve 
at  table. 

Very  early  also  in  the  history  of  Borne  we  find  men- 
tion of  both  boys'  and  girls'  schools.  Plutarch  seems  to 
imply  that  even  Romulus  and  Remus  went  to  school 
at  Gabii,  and  the  unhappy  Virginia  was  on  her  ?  /ay  to 
school  when  her  precocious  beauty  attracted  the  fatal 
notice  of  Appius  Claudius.  Virginia  was,  however,  of 
plebeian  rank,  and  her  mother  was  dead. 

The  primary  teacher  (Utterutor)  was  usually  a  slave 
or  freedman,  who  acted  as  private  tutor,  or  instructed 
a  small  class  in  the  pergula,  or  veranda  attached  to  a 
house  or  shop.  Schooling  of  this  kind  was  paid  for  by 
the  month,  occasionally  by  the  year,  and  very  poorly 
paid;  insomuch  that   the  Iftterdtor  h§c)  often  to  eke  out 


60  THE   PRIVATE   LIFE   OF    THE   ROMANS. 

his  income  by  some  other  employment,  such  as  the 
writing  of  wills.  Under  Diocletian  the  monthly  fees 
of  a  pupil  were  limited  to  fifty  denarii.1 

The  school  year  consisted  of  eight  months,  with  a  long 
vacation  comprising  July,  August,  September,  and  Octo- 
ber. There  were  also  special  holidays,  such  as  the  feast 
of  Minerva,  and  the  Saturnalia,  NeAv  Year's  Day,  and 
the  twenty-second  of  February,  the  great  day  of  com- 
memoration of  the  dead. 

The  substance  of  what  was  taught  in  these  primary 
schools  was  the  same  as  that  which  an  old-fashioned  or 
more  carefully  secluded  child  acquired  at  home,  —  read- 
ing, writing,  and  the  elements  of  arithmetic,  while  the 
laws  of  the  Twelve  Tables,  as  we  have  already  seen, 
were  long  committed  to  memory  like  a  sort  of  catechism. 

The  Roman  system  of  numerals,  in  which  values  are 
expressed  by  the  collocation  of  different  letters  of  the 
alphabet,  appears,  beside  the  simplicity  of  the  Arabic,  a 
very  clumsy  one ;  and  the  regular-  employment  of  duo- 
decimal fractions,  or  division  of  the  unit  into  twelfths, 
increased  yet  more  the  difficulties  of  reckoning.  We  are 
not  surprised  therefore  to  learn  that  even  grown  men 
often  had  recourse  to  a  teacher  of  arithmetic,  or  calcula- 
tor, who  was  much  better  paid  than  the  common  school- 
master, nor  that  the  boy  at  his  desk  was  allowed  to  assist 
his  ciphering  by  using  the  fingers  of  both  hands,  as  well 
as  by  the  abacus,  or  counting-machine. 

Reckoning  with  the  fingers,  not  yet  wholly  disused  in 
the  East,  proceeded  upon  the  basis  of   expressing  by 

1  It  is  not  exactly  known  what  a  denarius  was  worth  under 
Diocletian.  Mommsen  computes  it  at  nine  German  pfennige, 
which  would  make  this  maximum  monthly  price  about  one  dollar. 


CHILDREN. 


61 


Abacus. 


eighteen  different  motions  of  the  left  hand,  nine  units 
and  nine  tens,  and,  by  similar  movements  of  the  right 
hand,  nine  hun- 
dreds and  nine 
thousands.  The 
term  abacus, 
which  we  have 
already  seen  ap- 
plied to  the  side- 
table  of  a  dining- 
room,  was  also 
used  both  for  a 
board  strewnwith 
sand,  on  which 
geometrical  figures  were  drawn  with  a  pointed  stick,  or 
stilus,  and  for  one  on  which  balls  representing  figures 
were  moved  about  in  grooves  representing  denominations 
of  figures.  This  kind  of  abacus  had  also  a  contrivance 
for  reckoning  fractions. 

The  Roman  monetary  system  had  practically  two  units 
of  value,  the  sestertius  and  its  quadruple,  the  denarius. 
Large  sums  were  commonly  computed  in  the  former  and 
reckoned  by  a  decimal  system.  Small  sums  were  ex- 
pressed in  the  latter  and  its  duodecimal  fractions.  The 
difficulty  which  must  have  arisen  from  the  simultaneous 
use  of  the  decimal  and  duodecimal  systems  was  dimin- 
ished by  rules  and  tables  for  reducing  the  one  kind  of 
fraction  to  the  other,  and  these  rules  and  tables  appar- 
ently found  a  place  in  the  curriculum  of  the  elementary 
schools. 

The  simple  instruction,  purely  practical  in  its  aim,  of 
these  primitive  establishments  was  deemed  all-sufficient 


62  THE  PRIVATE  LIFE  OF  THE  ROMANS. 

for  the  youth,  of  Rome  clown  to  the  time  of  the  second 
Punic  war.  But  after  that  period  there  grew  up  an  ever- 
increasing  demand  for  the  services  of  Greek  gramma- 
rians, who  not  only  taught  their  own  language,  but  intro- 
duced a  more  scientific  method  of  studying  the  Latin 
itself ;  and  who  succeeded,  after  a  time,  in  imbuing  the 
Roman  mind  with  something  resembling  the  broad  ideal 
of  Greek  culture,  —  that  is  to  say,  of  the  harmonious  and 
equal  development  of  all  a  man's  faculties,  both  physical 
and  mental. 

The  principal  text-book  of  the  Greek  grammaticus  was 
Homer.  The  master  read  aloud,  with  proper  accent  and 
inflection,  a  passage  from  the  poet.  This  the  pupil  had 
first  to  commit  to  memory,  and  afterward  to  stand  a  cer- 
tain examination,  not  merely  upon  its  grammar  and 
prosody,  but  on  all  the  various  questions  in  geography, 
astronomy,  history,  and  mythology  which  it  might  sug- 
gest. Written  exercises  had  also  to  be  prepared,  trans- 
lations from  poetry  into  prose,  and  original  themes. 

The  criticism  of  these  last  must  have  involved  some 
elementary  teaching  in  rhetoric,  but  a  further  pursuit  of 
the  various  branches  of  learning  comprehended  under 
this  head  was  reserved  for  the  higher  schools  of  the 
rhetoricians. 

The  grammatical  course  was  deemed  equally  appro- 
priate for  boys  and  girls,  and  a  good  number  of  the  latter 
attended  the  grammar  schools  ;  although  there  was 
plainly  always  a  prejudice  in  favor  of  home  education 
for  them. 

To  get  the  full  benefit  even  of  this  amount  of  instruc- 
tion it  was  needful  that  the  pupil  should  both  understand 
and  speak  Greek,  and  this  the  children  of  the  wealthy 


CHILDREN.  63 

learned  to  do  in  infancy  from  domestic  slaves  of  that 
nation,  as  those  of  the  Russian  nobility  learn  French  and 
English  from  their  nursery  governesses  to-day. 

As  soon  as  a  boy  was  old  enough  to  begin  his  public 
education,  he  was  placed  under  the  special  charge  of  a 
servant,  called  paedagogus,  whose  business  it  was  to  help 
him  prepare  his  lessons,  and  go  with  him  to  school,  and 
who  continued  to  be  his  personal  attendant  until  he 
received  the  toga  virilis. 

Long  after  this  period  a  young  man  might,  and  often 
did,  frequent  the  schools  of  rhetoric,  which,  like  the 
grammar  schools,  were  an  importation  from  Greece,  and 
conducted  mainly  upon  the  Greek  method,  and  where 
music  and  the  higher  mathematics  were  taught,  as  well 
as  the  arts  of  composition  and  oratory. 

Yet  it  is  evident  that  a  dull  but  deep-seated  objection 
to  all  this  outlandish  culture  lingered  throughout  the 
whole  republican  period,  not  merely  among  the  masses, 
but  in  the  minds  of  enthusiasts  for  the  old  Roman  spirit 
and  traditions,  like  the  elder  Cato ;  and  when  Atticus, 
the  friend  of  Cicero,  published  a  collection  of  Greek 
anecdotes,  Ave  find  Lucullus  congratulating  him  upon  the 
barbarism  of  some  of  his  expressions,  on  the  ground 
that  it  did  not  become  a  good  Roman  to  know  Greek  too 
well. 

After  the  Romans  came  to  have  a  literature  of  their 
own,  there  grew  up  a  class  of  grammatici  Latini,  who 
made  a  business  of  teaching  Terence,  Horace,  and  Virgil, 
and  who  were  much  frequented.  The  corresponding  class 
of  Latin  rhetores  had  never  found  favor,  either  with  in- 
dividuals or  with  the  state.  Their  teaching  was  of  a 
very  inferior  order,  and  their  influence  upon  manners 


THE   PRIVATE   LIFE   OF    THE   ROMANS. 

was  considered  so  bad  that  as  early  as  the  year  92  b.c. 
all  such  Latin  schools  of  rhetoric  were  closed  by  order 
of  the  Censors,  Domitius  and  Cassius. 

Every  well-bred  Koman  boy  learned  to  ride,  to  run, 
to  leap,  to  box,  and  to  swim,  as  a  necessary  preparation 
for  his  military  service,  and  the  Campus  Martius  was 
assigned  for  the  practice  of  these  and  all  other  athletic 
exercises. 

Under  ordinary  circumstances  a  lad  was  supposed  to 
have  finished  his  regular  schooling  by  the  end  of  his 
-f  seventeenth  year,  at  which  time  also  he  ceased  to  be 
puer  and  became  invents,  and  liable  for  military  duty. 
Already,  in  the  vast  majority  of  cases,  he  had  laid  aside 
the  toga  praetexta,  or  simple  woollen  tunic  with  a  broad 
purple  stripe  (clavus  latus)  down  the  front,  worn  by 
both  boys  and  girls  of  rank,  and  had  been  ceremoniously 
invested  by  his  father  or  guardian  with  the  toga  virllis, 
or  toga  pura,  the  plain  white  garment  of  manhood. 
No  precise  age  was  fixed  for  this  solemnity,  and 
the  time  of  the  year  was  also  optional,  although  the 
religious  feast  of  the  Liberdlia  —  March  17th  —  was 
undoubtedly  a  favorite  season.  The  bulla  was  first 
removed  from  the  boy's  neck  and  consecrated  to  the 
Lares,  and  an  offering  was  then  made  for  him  in  the 
family  chapel,  after  which,  accompanied  by  a  train  of 
relatives  and  friends,  he  was  led  into  the  Forum  and 
formerly  presented  to  the  public.  His  full  name  was 
afterwards  inscribed  in  the  list  of  citizens  kept  in  the 
Tabularium  upon  the  Capitol,  or  among  the  archives  of 
his  province ;  a  sacrifice  was  offered  for  him  at  some 
public  altar,  and  a  banquet  followed,  accompanied,  in  the 
case  of  imperial  and  other  very  distinguished  youth,  by 


CHILDREN.  65 

a  largess  to  the  people.  The  maiden  of  quality  continued 
to  wear  her  tunica  praetextq  until  marriage. 

For  the  young  man  there  usually  remained,  after  the 
ceremonial  introduction  to  public  life  described  above, 
a  finishing  year,  the  tirocinium,  of  special  preparation 
for  the  calling  which  he  had  elected  to  pursue.  If  he 
were  to  be  a  lawyer,  or  aspired  to  public  life,  as  almost 
all  the  law  students  did,  he  attached  himself  to  the  train 
of  some  eminent  statesman,  as  did  Cicero  to  that  of  the 
great  Augur,  L.  Mucius  Scaevola,  and  Cselius  afterward 
to  Cicero's,  and  learned  by  observation  his  manners 
and  methods.  If  he  had  chosen  the  military  career,  he 
obtained  a  place,  in  some  respects  resembling  a  staff- 
position,  in  the  cohort  of  some  famous  general,  and, 
without  being  subjected  to  all  the  drudgery  of  a  common 
soldier,  he  learned  the  regime  of  camps  and  the  duties 
of  an  army  officer.  The  former  kind  of  apprenticeship 
was  called  tirocinium  fori,  the  latter  tirocinium  7nilitiae. 

Boys  of  the  middle  and  lower  classes  went  directly, 
as  they  do  now,  from  school  to  the  business  of  life. 

Some  uncertainty  exists  as  to  the  time  at  which  a 
free-born  youth  obtained  the  ius  suffrdgii,  or  became 
qualified  to  vote  in  the  general  elections.  He  was 
legally  free  to  marry,  to  contract  debts,  to  receive  a 
legacy,  or  make  a  will,  from  his  fourteenth  birthday,  — 
a  girl  from  her  twelfth,  —  but  so  long  as  he  was  praetex- 
tdtus  he  certainly  did  not  vote.  It  is  altogether  likely 
that  his  introduction  to  the  Forum  constituted  his  politi- 
cal majority,  but  it  must  be  remembered  that  the  suffrage 
lost  its  significance  after  the  state  was  no  longer  free, 
that  is  to  say,  in  those  imperial  times  about  which  we 
know  so  much  more  than  of  any  other ;  and  this  is  prob- 


of  ypv 

CTKIVERSIT 


66  THE   PRIVATE   LIFE   OF   THE   ROMANS. 

ably  why  under  the  empire  the  investiture  with  the 
toga  virilis  became  more  and  more  a  matter  of  parental 
caprice ;  so  that  it  was  sometimes  bestowed,  as  in 
Caracalla's  case,  as  early  as  twelve,  or,  again,  as  in 
Caligula's,  withheld  until  nineteen. 

The  subject  of  slavery  among  the  Romans  is  too  large 
a  one  to  be  treated  otherwise  than  very  cursorily  in  so 
small  a  manual  as  this.  Slaves  there  always  were  in  the 
Roman  commonwealth  from  the  earliest  historic  period ; 
and  the  master  had  legal  power  of  life  and  death  over 
his  human  chattels.  But  the  servitude  of  the  olden 
time,  when  even  a  patrician  tilled  his  own  fields  with 
the  help  of  his  own  sons,  was  practically  a  light  enough 
order  of  bondage.  The  vast  majority  of  masters  held 
only  one,  or,  at  most,  two  or  three  slaves,  who  were 
treated  in  some  sort  as  members  of  the  family,  sleeping 
under  the  same  roof,  and  taking  their  meals  in  the  same 
room,  if  never  at  the  same  table.  Similar  social  condi- 
tions are  wont  to  mark  the  modest  beginnings  of  any 
state,  but  in  the  nature  of  things  they  cannot  endure. 

A  servile  population  always  increases  faster  than  a 
free  one.  Great  towns  grow  up  and  become  centres  of 
civic  and  commercial  activity,  and  the  landed  proprietor 
finds  it  convenient  to  pass  a  part  or  the  whole  of  his 
year  in  them,  leaving  the  main  business  of  agriculture 
to  his  rustic  dependents.  Small  freeholds  are  gradually 
absorbed  by  extensive  estates,  which  are  worked  by  great 
gangs  of  laborers  under  the  supervision  of  men  who 
have  risen  from  their  own  ranks.  Habits  of  luxury  and 
ostentation  among  the  privileged  class  grow  fast  with 
the  increase  of  wealth,  calling  for  armies  of  servants 
with   highly  specialized   functions.     All   these   changes 


SLAVES.  67 

were  either  accomplished,  or  in  rapid  process  of  accom- 
plishment, in  the  Roman  state,  by  the  year  of  the  city 
550 ;  that  is  to  say,  two  centuries  before  the  Christian 
era.  The  dominant  passion  of  the  race  for  foreign  con- 
quest had  also  its  influence  in  developing  the  institution 
of  slavery.  On  the  one  hand  a  slave  could  not  be  drafted 
into  the  army,  wherefore  his  services  were  all  the  more 
indispensable  in  any  and  every  department  of  home 
industry.  On  the  other,  among  the  countless  prisoners 
taken  in  foreign  war,  and  thereby  reduced  to  slavery, 
there  were  many  from  highly  civilized  Greece,  and  the 
farther  Orient,  who  were  capable  of  instructing  their 
comparatively  rude  conquerors,  not  merely  in  the  finer 
arts  and  crafts,  but  in  every  department  of  human 
knowledge.  Whence  it  came  to  pass  that  a  large  major- 
ity, not  merely  of  the  skilled  workmen  of  Rome,  but  of 
the  teachers,  readers,  and  amanuenses,  employed  by  the 
V  wealthy  who  aspired  to  culture,  were  slaves  of  foreign 
extraction. 

The  first  step  in  the  social  revolution  thus  achieved 
was  the  division  of  a  man's  slaves  into  the  fa  mil i a  urbana 
and  the  familia  rustica,  a  classification  corresponding 
roughly  with  that  of  the  negro  slaves  into  domestic  ser- 
vants and  field  hands ;  while  the  same  degradation  was 
implied  in  the  transference  of  a  member  of  the  former 
class  to  the  latter. 

The  whole  body  of  "rustic"  slaves,  often  extremely 
numerous,  was  under  the  general  supervision  of  a  villicus, 
who  also  in  most  instances  kept  the  farm  accounts,  and 
rendered  them  either  directly  to  the  master  or  to  a  pro- 
curator, or  steward.  Each  gang  of  slaves  which  was  told 
off  to  any  department  of  farm-labor  had  its  own  overseer 


68  THE   PRIVATE    LIFE   OF   THE   ROMANS. 

(magister  operae  or  operdrum).  Slave  labor  on  the  farm, 
as  in  the  house,  was  specialized  just  as  far  as  the  extent 
of  the  estate  and  the  wealth  of  the  proprietor  would 
permit.  In  ideal  conditions  we  not  only  find  each  kind 
of  animal  under  the  care  of  a  separate  servant  or  staff  of 
servants  (bubulci  for  the  oxen,  asindrii  for  the  donkeys, 
subulct  for  the  pigs,  etc.),  but  each  variety  of  feathered 
creature  —  hen,  pigeon,  pheasant,  as  the  case  might  be 
—  had  its  own  special  attendant,  gallindrius,  columbdrius, 
or  phdsidndrius.  There  would  be  piscatores  to  look  after 
the  fish-ponds,  a  topidrius  to  lay  out  gardens,  a  hortuld- 
nus  to  cultivate  them,  an  apidrius  to  manage  the  bees, 
and  an  aqudrius  to  keep  the  water-works  in  order,  and 
many  others,  of  whom  and  of  their  duties  we  shall  have 
more  to  say  in  another  place. 

With  regard  to  the  great  staff  of  slaves  who  raised  the 
crops,  there  seems  some  reason  to  suppose  that  the  vine- 
yards were  occasionally  cared  for  by  men  who  did  no 
other  work ;  but  usually  the  agricultural  laborer  passed 
on,  as  the  season  changed,  from  one  kind  of  work  to 
another,  as  he  does  to-day,  and  the  use  of  such  terms  as 
fossor  (trencher),  messor  (reaper),  putdtor  (grafter),  etc., 
is  to  specify  not  a  different  individual,  but  the  use  of  a 
different  tool. 

The  rural  slaves  worked  under  overseers  who  were 
almost  of  necessity  hard  and  cruel,  and  they  were  often 
little  better  lodged  than  the  beasts  for  which  they  cared. 
Now  and  then  there  would  be  a  fanciful  and  kind-hearted 
master,  like  the  younger  Pliny,  who  piqued  himself  on 
having  made  the  slave-quarters  in  his  Laurentian  villa 
"  nice  enough  for  guests " ; l  but  it  may  be  taken  for 

>  Plin.  Ep.  II.  17.  9. 


SLAVES.  60 

granted  that  such  philanthropists  were  not  exceptionally 
numerous  in  ancient  Rome. 

The  modest  corps  of  house  servants  maintained  by  a 
distinguished  Roman  in  the  earlier  time  was  headed  by 
an  atnensis,  or  steward,  who  also  kept  the  house-accounts. 
Later,  as  the  style  of  living  grew  more  elaborate,  these 
duties  had  to  be  divided,  and  the  atriensis  became  a  mere 
major-domo,  who  had  enough  to  do  in  exercising  a  gen- 
eral supervision  over  the  arrangements  of  the  dwelling 
itself.  The  ever-increasing  crowd  of  menials  under  him 
fell  into  different  classes,  each  with  an  overseer  of  its 
own.  The  cubicularil  performed  the  duties  of  housemaids, 
the  triclinarii  waited  at  table,  the  supellectdril  kept  the 
furniture  and  table-ware  in  order,  the  cullnarii  were 
kitchen  drudges,  while  the  bahiearii,  or  those  who  served 
the  baths,  formed  another  distinct  class.  The  functions 
of  valet  and  ladies'  maid  were  distributed  amongst  ornd- 
tores  and  orndtrices,  tonsores,  or  barbers,  and  cinifldnes,  or 
hair-crimpers,  and  calceatores  who  took  care  of  the  feet. 
There  were  clelicdtl,  or  pages,  more  or  less  pampered,  to 
run  on  errands,  an  invitator  to  summon  guests,  a  servus 
ab  hospitiis  to  look  after  their  lodgement,  a  porter  (iditi- 
tor  or  ostiarius)  who  was  sometimes  chained  in  the  vesti- 
bule like  a  dog.  Were  the  master  of  an  artistic  or  literary 
turn,  he  had  people  whose  special  duty  it  was  to  look 
after  his  pictures  and  statues,  —  servants  a  pinacptheca 
and  a  statu! s, —  tabellaril  to  convey  his  letters  to  their 
destination,  lectores  to  read  aloud  to  him  at  meals,  in  the 
bath,  or  in  bed. 

The  number  of  slaves  who  should  accompany  a  great 
man  or  a  great  lady  when  he  or  she  went  abroad,  was 
matter  of  lively  emulation.     Those  who  walked  had  ante- 


70  THE    PRIVATE    LIFE    OP   THE    ROMANS. 

ambulatoreSj  and  pedisequi  or  pedisequae  to  go  before  and 
behind  them.  If  they  took  the  air  in  litters,  they  were 
borne  by  lectarii,  the  most  fashionable  being  Syrians  or 
Cappadocians  of  unusual  stature,  who,  like  the  pages, 
wore  a  brilliant  livery.  The  boy,  as  we  have  seen,  had 
his  paedagogus  to  attend  him  to  school,  the  daughter  of 
well-to-do  parents  had  her  Greek  maid,  who  performed 
the  same  office.  There  was  often  a  capsarius  besides  to 
carry  the  books  and  tablets. 

All  these  functionaries  were  slaves,  a  limited  number 
being  of  the  comparatively  privileged  servile  class  called 
vernae;  that  is  to  say,  slaves  born  in  the  house  and  usu- 
ally trained  for  the  personal  service  of  its  children,  many 
of  whose  educational  and  other  privileges  they  shared. 
The  freedman  who  had  been  verna,  always  held  himself 
superior  to  other  manumitted  slaves. 

A  highly  prized  slave  was  occasionally  set  free,  by 
^)ure  grace,  or  in  gratitude  for  some  signal  service, 
either  during  the  lifetime  of  his  master,  or  in  his  will. 
The  right  of  the  slave  to  his  own  small  savings  (pecu- 
lium)  was  also  practically  recognized  and  these  might 
be  applied  to  the  purchase  of  his  freedom ;  but  their 
accumulation,  very  slow  at  best,  was  yet  farther  hin- 
dered by  the  master's  claim  upon  the  little  horde,  for 
making  good  certain  pecuniary  injuries  which  he  might 
sustain  through  the  slave.  After  the  number  of  bondmen 
had  increased  enormously,  so  that  one  man  sometimes 
owned  many  thousand  souls,  it  became  advantageous  for 
the  master  to  educate  them  wholesale  in  trades  and  crafts 
for  which  they  might  show  some  aptitude,  and  then  let 
them  out  to  master-mechanics,  bankers,  seamen,  theat- 
rical managers,  or  masters  of  the  amphitheatre,  as  the 
case  might  be. 


THE 

VERSn 
SLAVES.  ?1 

X 

Sometimes,  too,  the  master  directly  advanced  the 
capital  for  setting  his  slave  up  in  business,  allowing 
the  latter  a  share  of  the  profits,  out  of  which  he  might 
hope  some  day  to  buy  his  freedom. 

The  common  punishment  of  a  refractory  slave  was  beat- 
ing. If  a  runaway  were  caught,  as  he  could  hardly 
fail  to  be,  since  there  were  extremely  heavy  penalties  for 
harboring  and  assisting  him,  he  was  either  branded  or 
had  an  iron  collar  like  a  dog's  welded  round  his  neck,  or 
his  legs  were  fettered,  or  in  exaggerated  or  repeated  cases 
of  offence  he  was  at  once  turned  into  the  arena  or  other- 
wise put  to  death.  If  he  attempted  to  take  personal 
vengeance  upon  his  master  for  any  wrong  whatsoever, 
his  whole  family  shared  his  fate,  and  the  regular  form 
of  capital  punishment  for  a  slave  was  crucifixion  under 
the  most  ignominious  and  agonizing  circumstances. 

The  institution  of  slavery  reached  its  greatest  devel- 
opment in  Rome  in  the  last  century  of  the  republic, 
when  slave-traders  and  slave-markets  nourished  both  in 
the  capital  itself,  and  in  all  the  great  ports  visited  by 
Roman  ships. 

Already,  however,  in  the  early  days  of  the  empire, 
the  spread  of  philosojDhic  and  humanitarian  ideas  had 
softened  the  theory  of  human  servitude,  and  modified 
the  slave's  position.  Marriage  was  made  legal  for  him ; 
he  was  empowered  to  testify  in  certain  courts,  and  to 
lodge  complaint,  if  treated  with  outrageous  cruelty. 
Kind  masters,  like  Pliny,  respected  the  provisions  of  his 
testament ;  under  Claudius,  if  his  master  abandoned  him 
when  he  was  old  or  ill.  he  was  thereby  set  free;  under 
Hadrian,  the  wanton  slaughter  of  a  slave  by  his  master 
was  forbidden;  under  Constantino,  this  prime  was  made 


72  THE   PRIVATE   LIFE   OF   THE   ROMANS. 

one  of  homicide ;  and  so  finally,  with  the  formal  conver- 
sion of  the  empire  to  Christianity,  the  long-declining 
slave-system  of  Kome  received  its  death-blow. 

We  have  considered  briefly  the  position  and  mutual 
relations  of  the  ordinary  members  of  a  Roman  household, 
or  of  what  may  be  called  the  inner  family  circle ;  but 
there  was  a  sense  in  which  the  Roman  family  might  be 
said  to  embrace  an  indefinitely  larger  number  of  persons 
connected  with  it  by  ties  more  or  less  remote.  To  this 
outer  circle,  or  secondary  order  of  members,  belonged 
the  authorized  guests  of  a  house,  its  clients,  and  its 
freedmen. 

The  term  hospitium  embraced  not  merely  the  sponta- 
neous welcome  to  bed  and  board  of  a  man's  near  kindred 
and  personal  friends,  but  a  contract  for  mutual  hospi- 
tality, written  or  otherwise  attested,  which  might  be 
made  either  between  two  communities,  or  between  two 
individuals,  on  behalf  of  themselves  and  their  depend- 
ents, or  between  an  individual  and  a  community.  The 
practice  was  one  of  extreme  antiquity  in  Italy,  older 
ertainly  than  the  rise  of  the  Roman  people.  The  con- 
tract was  drawn  up  and  presented  by  accredited  messen- 
gers, attested  by  a  hand-shake  or  by  a  formula  of  words 
called  the  sponsio,  and  accurately  recorded,  and  it 
remained  binding  upon  the  posterity  of  the  contracting 
parties  until  formally  and  publicly  annulled. 

Hospitium  between  two  communities,  that  is,  between 
the  inhabitants  of  certain  towns  or  districts,  was  called 
hospitium  publicum.  It  was  recorded  by  engraving  on 
copper  or  bronze  tablets,1  of  which  duplicate  copies  were 

1  It  seems  altogether  probable  that  a  part  at  least  of  the  famous 
Eugubean  tables  —  the  bronze  tablets  exquisitely  engraved  in  ar- 


GUESTS.  73 

preserved  in  some  temple,  or  other  sacred  place,  in  either 
town.  In  Rome  the  depository  of  such  tablets  was  the 
Aedes  fidei  popull  Romani. 

They  entitled  the  stranger  to  free  board  and  lodging 
for  a  certain  period,  to  a  physician's  attendance  in  ill- 
ness, to  decent  burial  if  he  died. 

Such  contracts  were  in  force  between  Roman  and 
Greek  communities  as  well,  and  they  involved  no  light 
charge  upon  the  latter  in  the  days  when  foreign  travel 
had  become  a  fashion  among  the  Roman  magnates.  But 
some  —  like  Cicero  when  he  went  as  proconsul  to  Cilicia 
—  preferred  to  remain  independent,  and  would  not  avail 
themselves  of  the  privileges  of  a  public  guest. 

Haspitia  privata,  or  contracts  for  hospitality  between 
individuals,  were  also  sometimes  engraved  and  either 
inserted  in  the  wall  of  the  atrium  or  suspended  on  it. 
Usually,  however,  a  simpler  device  was  employed  by 
private  persons.  The  guest  presented  a  small"  engraved 
ticket  {tessera),  of  which  the  host  had  a  duplicate,  and 
was  at  once  made  welcome  to  the  privileges  of  the  house. 
He  was  given  a  bath  and  a  meal ;  an  offering  was  made 
for  him  at  the  family  altar ;  he  was  assigned  a  bed,  and 
became  thenceforth,  for  an  indefinite  period,  a  member 
of  the  family.  So  far  from  fretting  under  this  as  an 
imposition,  the  great  Roman  statesman  was  ambitious  of 
harboring  as  many  such  guests  as  possible,  and  it  was  a 
matter  of  policy  with  him  to  look  well  after  their  com- 
fort and  interests  on  the  ground  that  they  increased  his 
own  influence  in  the  provinces  and  abroad. 

chaic  and  hitherto  only  partially  deciphered  characters — discov- 
ered under  the  ruins  of  an  ante-Roman  theatre,  and  now  preserved 
in  the  palazzo  pubblico  of  Gubbio  in  the  Marches,  were  records  of 
hospitia  jonblica.  dating  from  Etruscan  or  even  Pelasgic  times. 


74  THE   PRIVATE   LIFE    OF   THE   ROMANS. 

Originally,  and  so  long  as  the  state  remained  free,  the 
relation  of  client  and  patron  was  also  a  sufficiently  hon- 
orable one,  resting  like  that  of  guest  and  host,  on  pledges 
of  mutual  service.  There  was  this  difference,  however, 
between  the  position  of  a  client  and  that  of  a  legal  guest, 
that  the  latter  was  a  free  citizen  in  his  own  commu- 
nity, while  the  former  had  usually  no  civic  rights  what- 
ever. Either  he  was  in  banishment  from  his  native 
place,  or  he  belonged  to  a  tribe  or  city  which  had  been 
vanquished  in  war,  and  so  disfranchised ;  or  he  was  a 
freedman  (llbertus)  whose  manumission  gave  him  no 
political  status.  In  either  case  he  needed  the  protection 
of  some  powerful  personage,  and  was  only  too  glad,  in 
return  for  the  same,  to  take  the  name  of  his  patron, 
engaging  to  fight  his  battles  both  at  home  and  abroad, 
and  to  assist  him  out  of  his  own  private  means  —  if  he 
had  such  —  when  extraordinary  payments,  as  of  ransom 
or  dowry,  were  to  be  made,  or  the  patron  was  in  any  way 
pressed  for  money.  Clients  and  patrons  might  neither 
accuse  nor  testify  against  one  another  in  the  courts,  and 
the  laws  of  the  Twelve  Tables  made  it  a  capital  offence 
for  a  patron  to  betray  his  client's  interests.  It  was  no 
uncommon  thing  for  the  entire  population  of  conquered 
cities  and  states  voluntarily  to  seek  such  a  relation  with 
the  general  who  had  subdued  them,  and  with  his  de- 
scendants. Thus  the  Marcelli  became  the  hereditary 
patrons  of  the  Skilian  towns,  the  Fabii  of  the  Allobro- 
gian,  Cato  Uticensis  of  the  island  of  Cyprus,  and  so  on. 
The  freedman  either  continued  to  reside  in  his  patron's 
house  and  perform  his  old  functions,  or  he  was  endowed 
by  the  latter  with  a  capital  for  starting  in  business,  or 
with  some  small    frct-holr]  property.      In  case  of  subse- 


CLIENTS.  75 

qlient  impoverishment,  they  were  still  bound  to  assist 
one  another.  The  patron  always  paid  for  the  funeral  of 
his'  freedinan.  was  his  legal  heir  if  he  died  childless,  and 
the  ex  officio  guardian  of  his  children  if  he  left  any 
under  age. 

The  relations  of  patron  and  libertus  remained  virtually 
the  same  throughout  the  imperial  period ;  those  of 
patron  and  client,  on  the  other  hand,  altered  materially, 
and,  from  a  moral  point  of  view,  very  much  for  the 
worse.  When  the  number  and  strength  of  a  patron's 
following  had  ceased  to  have  any  political  significance, 
and  do  longer  increased  his  importance  in  the  state, 
it  became  largely  a  matter  of  senseless  ostentation  on 
the  one  side,  and  of  self-interested  sycophancy  on  the 
other.  The  hangers-on  of  a  great  man  received  their 
maintenance,  and  this,  in  most  instances,  was  all  they 
wanted.  They  were  of  every  rank  and  condition,  men 
of  letters  from  whom  a  certain  tribute  was  expected  in 
the  way  of  flattery,  soldiers  of  fortune,  and  professional 
legacy-hunters,  scions  of  the  great  families,  who  had 
early  run  through  their  patrimony,  the  idle  of  every 
grade,  with  a  tatterdemalion  fringe  of  the  congenitally 
and  hopelessly  poor.  A  few  favored  individuals  out  of 
this  motley  regiment  might  be  invited  to  the  patron's 
own  table,  but  all  claimed  as  their  right,  and  regularly 
received,  either  one  substantial  meal  in  a  day,  or  its 
equivalent  in  money.  Occasionally  the  mass  of  the 
clients  was  regaled  at  a  public  feast  (epidum  publicum), 
where  the  viands  were  supplied  by  a  contractor  (man- 
ceps)  at  so  much  a  head.  This  was  called  a  cena  recta, 
and  was,  originally,  at  least  an  exceptional  arrangement-, 
for  days  of  public  celebration ;   as  when  Julius  Caesar, 


76  THE   PRIVATE   LIFE    OF    THE   ROMANS. 

on  the  occasion  of  his  triumph,  in  56  B.C.,  entertained 
the  entire  male  population  of  Rome  at  22,000  triclinia. 
A  more  common  custom  was  to  appoint  a  place  where 
a  species  of  dole  was  distributed  to  all  the  clientele. 
This  practice  was  called  epulum  dtvidere,  and  the  dole 
itself  sportula  from  the  basket  in  which  the  food  was 
taken  away ;  the  same  name  being  applied  in  imperial 
times  to  the  small  money-payment,  which  had  now  uni- 
versally replaced  the  alms  in  kind.  The  average  amount 
of  this  daily  allowance,  under  the  earlier  emperors,  was 
twenty-live  asses,  or  about  thirty-three  cents  of  our 
money.  On  special  occasions,  like  the  patron's  birth- 
day, a  larger  sum  was  given.  Martial1  mentions  one 
such  where  it  was  trebled,  but  adds  contemptuously  that 
it  was  doubtful  whether  the  man  had  a  right  to  any 
birthday  at  all.  On  the  other  hand  if  the  great  man 
were  ill  and  could  not  receive  his  clients,  there  appears 
to  have  been  no  distribution;  but  even  so,  a  client  who 
managed  to  make  a  number  of  successive  salutations, 
and  to  keep  well  with  several  patrons,  as  many  did, 
might  secure,  without  further  exertion,  a  modest  main- 
tenance for  a  rising  family. 

1  Mar.  Epig.  x.  27. 


FOOD    AND    CLOTHING.  77 


CHAPTER   IV. 

FOOD  AND  CLOTHING. 

Bread,  wine,  and  oil,  —  on  these  three  abundant  and 
beautiful  products  of  the  Italian  peninsula  the  mass  of 
its  inhabitants  lived  and  throve  in  ancient  times  as  they 
do  to-day.  Wheat  was  the  grain  most  grown  by  the 
Romans,  and  wheaten  porridge  or  bread  their  staple 
food.  In  very  ancient  times  the  grain  of  wheat  was  not 
even  ground,  but  merely  pounded  in  a  mortar,  mixed 
with  water,  and  cooked  to  the  consistency  of  a  thick  pulp, 
called  puis.  The  slaves  who  pounded  the  grain  were 
pistoreSj  or  pinsitores.  Even  after  the  superiority  of 
baked  bread  had  been  discovered,  the  baking  continued 
for  a  long  time  to  be  done  at  home,  and  was  regarded  as 
the  special  business  of  the  house-mother,  or  of  the  chief 
cook,  according  to  the  rank  and  means  of  the  family. 
The  first  public  bakery  of  Rome  was  established  in 
171  B.c,  after  which  time  home-made  bread  went  gradu- 
ally out  of  use  in  cities,  though  it  had  still  to  be  pre- 
pared 011  rural  estates  by  slaves  appointed  for  the 
purpose.  Later  it  became  one  of  the  recognized  func- 
tions of  the  general  government  (it  had  long  been  held 
such  in  times  of  scarcity)  to  regulate,  year  by  year,  the 
food  supply  of  the  nation;  and  to  see  that  the  mass  of 
the   people   was   provided   with   cheap   and   wholesome 


78  THE   PRIVATE   LIFE    OF    THE   ROMANS. 

bread.  The  bread-makers  of  Kome  were  now  organized 
into  a  college  or  guild,  under  the  presidency  of  the 
Praefectus  Annonae,  and  vast  establishments,  comprising 
both  mills  and  bakeries,  were  built  and  let  out  to  them 
by  the  State. 

The  members  of  this  guild  enjoyed  special  privileges 
and  immunities,  which  were  extended,  after  the  general 
decline  of  agriculture,  when  grain  had  to  be  imported  in 
vast  quantities,  to  the  ship-owner  and  seamen  (naviaddrii 
and  caudicarii) ,  on  whose  enterprise  the  supply  of  bread- 
stuffs  largely  depended.  Trajan,  we  are  told,1  gave  the 
ius  suffragii  to  every  man  who  had  worked  for  three 
years  a  pistrinum  (grain-mill)  in  which  at  least  one 
hundred  moclii  of  corn  had  been  ground  daily.  But  it 
must  always  be  remembered  that  even  under  that  excel- 
lent emperor  the  suffrage  did  not  mean  what  it  had  done 
when  the  state  was  free. 

As  early  as  the  times  of  the  Gracchi  (130  b.c.)  there 
had  been  a  monthly  distribution  of  grain  among  the 
people.  Four  hundred  years  later,  under  the  Emperor 
Aurelian,  there  had  come  to  be  a  daily  distribution  of 
baked  bread,  either  gratuitous  or  at  a  nominal  price,  with 
which,  and  the  perpetual  exhibition  of  games  in  the 
Circus  ("pti7ie7)i  et  Circenses"),  the  Roman  burgher  of 
those  degenerate  days  found  his  absolute  needs  both  of 
body  and  mind  satisfied  without  further  exertion  upon 
his  own  part. 

Different  qualities  of  bread  were  provided  even  at  the 
great  public  bakeries.  The  best  was  the  panis  siUgineus, 
made  from  siligo,  or  wheat  flour  of  the  very  first  quality  ; 
the  simila  or  similago  was  also  a  fine  white  flour,  only  a 

i  Gaii.  Inst.  1.  34. 


FOOD.  79 

little  inferior  to  the  first.  Coarser  varieties  of  bread,  — 
the  panis  cibarius,  plebeius,  rusticus,  as  also  the  panis  ca- 

strensis,  or  bread  of  the  common  soldier,  —  were  made  by 
mixing  flour  of  the  second  quality  with  bran,  or  wholly 
of  bran,  or  sometimes  of  inferior  grains  like  millet. 

Besides  the  great  public  magazines  of  bread,  there 
were  many  small  cake-shops,  where  cakes,  pastry,  and 
confectionery,  and,  in  general,  all  the  dainties  which  are 
summed  up  by  the  modern  Italian  under  the  comprehen- 
sive term  dolci  (sweets)  were  made  and  sold.  But  these 
establishments  were  conducted  by  private  enterprise,  and 
their  keepers  were  clulciarii  placentdrii,  libarii,  crustidarii, 
as  the  case  might  be.  'These  were  the  shops  which  we 
have  already  seen  besieged  by  the  school-boys  in  the 
early  morning  hours ;  but  the  choice  of  the  young  stu- 
dents was  probably  limited,  and  they  had  to  content 
themselves  for  the  most 
part,  no  doubt,  with  the 
harmless  quadra  panis,  a 
plain,  round  cake  quar- 
tered off  by  two  lines  like 
a  hot-cross  bun,  of  which  D    .   ,B.  . . 

Panis  (Rich). 

plenty    of    illustrations 

exist,  and  of  which  specimens  were  found  at  Pompeii. 

The  grain-mills  of  the  ancients  were  of  three  kinds, 
the  molae  manudriae,  or  hand-mills,  the  molae  asindriae, 
turned  hj  asses  or  mules,  and  the  molae  aquariae,  or 
water-mills.  The  first  two  were  identical  in  principle, 
and  differed  only  in  size.  They  consisted  of  two  parts, 
the  meta,  or  nether,  and  the  catillus,  or  upper  mill-stone ; 
but  their  construction  was  very  unlike  that  of  the  mills 
of  modern  times.     The  meta  was  a  solid  cone  of  stone 


80 


THE    PRIVATE    LIFE    OF    THE    ROMANS. 


Moia(Rich). 


resting  upon  a  firm  base  with  an  iron  rod  projecting  a 
little  way  from  its  apex.  The  catillus  consisted  of  two 
hollow  stones,  united  in  the  form  of  an  hour-glass. 
The  lower  half  fitted  over  the  cone  of  the  meta  like 
an  inverted  cup.     It  had  a  socket  at  the  narrowest  part, 

which  received  the  rod 
aforesaid,  and  was  made 
to  revolve  upon  it  by 
means  of  a  projecting 
handle  or  lever.  The 
grain  was  poured  into  the 
upper  cup,  and  falling  be- 
tween the  lower  and  the 
solid  cone  through  holes 
bored  for  the  purpose,  it 
was  ground  by  the  revolution  of  the  catillus.  If  the 
mill  were  large  and  worked  by  horse-power,  there  was 
only  one  lever,  to  which  the  animal,  whose  eyes  had 
first  been  bandaged  to  prevent  its  becoming  dizzy,  was 
harnessed.  The  smaller  hand-mills  had  a  lever  project- 
ing on  either  side,  and  were  worked  by  two  slaves. 
Water-mills  did  not  come  into  general  use  in  Rome 
before  the  fourth  century  of  our  era,  when  there  was  a 
group  of  such  at  the  foot  of  the  Janiculan  hill.  The 
actual  machinery  for  grinding  was  still  substantially  the 
same  as  that  already  described,  but  the  power  was  now 
supplied  by  streams  of  water  falling  from  an  artificial 
reservoir  at  the  top  of  the  hill  upon  a  large  water-wheel 
(rota  aquaria)  with  float-boards,  and  having  attached  to 
its  axis  a  pair  of  cog-wheels  {tympana  dentata)  whose 
motion  turned  the  catillus.  It  was  that  able  and  resource- 
ful general,  Belisarius,  who,  during  the  siege  of  Rome  by 


FOOD.  81 

the  Goths  in  536,  devised  a  system  of  floating  corn-mills, 
whose  wheels  were  turned  by  the  current  of  the  Tiber 
somewhat  like  those  which  may  be  seen  in  such  num- 
bers upon  the  Danube  to-day  between  Vienna  and  Buda- 
Pesth. 

Bacon  and  the  sweet,  nutty  oil  of  the  country  were 
used  to  impart  a  relish  to  porridge  and  coarse  bread,  and 
the  ordinary  drink  of  the  peasant  was  milk  or  must,  the 
unfermented  juice  of  the  grape.  Moreover,  even  the 
comparatively  poor  man  had  access  to  an  almost  infinite 
variety  of  vegetables,  —  beans,  peas,  lentils,  cabbages, 
beets,  turnips,  radishes,  carrots,  asparagus,  artichokes, 
chiccory,  onions,  leeks,  garlic  and  parsley,  melons  and 
cucumbers.  Lettuce,  mallow,  cress,  and  many  other 
plants  were  largely  cultivated  for  salads ;  and  for  sea- 
soning, mustard,  anise,  fennel,  .mint,  and  so  on. 

Beans  and  onions  were  the  vegetables  most  extensively 
raised  in  ancient  times,  the  name  of  the  Fabian  gens  and 
the  cognomen  Csepio  being  derived  from  these  crops. 
Beans,  however,  —  forbidden  altogether  by  Pythagoras 
to  his  disciples,  —  were  considered  too  heavy  food  for 
any  but  smiths,  gladiators,  and  farm  hands ;  and  though 
Varro  maintains  that  the  men  of  old  were  at  their  raciest 
when  their  talk  smelt  of  onions  and  garlic,  the  taste  for 
these  fierce  condiments  declined  fast  with  the  progress 
of  refinement ;  insomuch  that  Horace  devotes  an  entire 
epode  (the  third)  to  his  execration  of  the  latter,  and 
iSTsevius  reproaches  the  gods  for  not  having  confounded 
the  gardener  who  first  grew  an  onion.  The  finest  of  all 
vegetables'  to  the  elder  Cato  was  cabbage,  which  seems 
quite  consistent  with  what  we  know  of  his  character. 

The    natural    fruits   of    Italy,    apples,    pears,    plums. 


82  THE   PRIVATE    LIFE   OF   THE    ROMANS. 

quinces,  olives,  and  grapes,  were  carefully  cultivated 
from  very  early  times,  and  Lucretius,  Varro,  and  Virgil 
agree  in  describing  the  land  as  literally  covered  with 
vineyards  and  orchards:  "tota  pomarium"  says  Varro. 
These  common  fruits  were  cheap  enough  in  their  due  sea- 
son, and  found  a  place  upon  almost  every  table ;  but  as 
luxury  increased,  there  came  to  be  great  emulation  on  the 
part  of  the  horticulturists  in  the  forcing  of  early  fruit, 
in  the  production  of  new  varieties,  which  were  often, 
then  as  now,  called  after  distinguished  men,  as  the  Ma- 
tian  apple  for  Gaius  Matius,  and  the  Appian  from  an 
Appius  Claudius;  and  lastly  in  the  introduction  and 
naturalization  of  foreign  fruits,  as  the  pomegranate  (gra- 
natum)  from  Carthage,  the  fig  and  almond  (ficus,  amyg- 
dala) from  Greece,  the  peach  (malum  Persicum)  from 
Persia,  the  apricot  (malum  Armeniacum)  from  Armenia, 
the  pistaccio  nut  (pistachium) ,  unknown  before  the  time 
of  Tiberius,  and  many  others. 

Dried  figs,  dates,  and  damson-plums  were  largely  im- 
ported, and  both  the  native  and  the  naturalized  fruits  of 
Italy  were  introduced  by  Roman  colonists  into  far  dis- 
tant provinces,  as  the  cherry  (cerasum)  into  Britain  and 
the  pistachio  (pistachium)  into  Spain. 

The  diet  of  the  early  Roman,  though  never  exclusively 
vegetarian,  appears  to  have  been  about  as  largely  so  as 
that  of  the  Italian  peasant  of  to-day.  The  slaughter  of 
neat  cattle  for  food  was  long  regarded  as  a  crime ;  mutton, 
pork,  and  goat's  flesh  were  the  meats  most  in  use.  As 
time  went  on  and  taste  became  more  sophisticated,  the 
craving  for  animal  food  increased,  and  accomplished 
cooks  like  him  in  the  Pseudolus  of  Plautus  came  to  regard 
vegetables  as  merely  accessories  to  it,  and  fitter  upon  the 
whole  for  the  nourishment  of  animals  than  men. 


FOOD.  83 

The  taste  for  game  also  developed  rapidly,  until  the 
sportsman's  hag  no  longer  sufficed  for  its  gratification, 
but  all  great  country-seats  in  the  last  years  of  the  repub- 
lic had  their  vivaria,  or  preserves.  The  kinds  of  wild 
flesh  most  esteemed  were  hare  (lejrus),  wild-goat  {caper), 
though  this  was  condemned  by  Galen  as  unwholesome, 
the  wild  boar  {a per),  which  was  roasted  whole  and  so 
served  at  sumptuous  tables,  and  even  the  wild  ass  (ona- 
ger), and  a  certain  species  of  dormouse  (glis). 

Over  and  above  the  ordinary  kinds  of  domestic  fowl, 
feathered  game  was  also  in  great  request,  such  as  the 
lagopus  or  white  grouse,  the  scoldpax  or  snipe,  the  attagen 
Ionicas  or  woodcock,  which  was  considered  a  marvellous 
delicacy,  besides  thrushes  (turdi),  partridges  (jierdlces), 
ortolans  (miliarias),  pheasants  (phasianl),  cranes  (grues), 
and  pavdnes,  or  peacocks.  These  last  indeed  seem  to 
have  been  regarded  in  the  year  46  b.c.  as  the  ne  plus  ultra 
of  table  luxury  in  this  line,  for  it  was  then  that  Cicero 
wrote  to  his  old  friend  Papirius  Psetus,  concerning  the 
banquets  to  which  he  was  perpetually  bidden  by  certain 
young  men  of  fashion,  "whom  he  taught  to  declaim, 
while  they  taught  him  to  dine," 1  that  he  had  "  eaten 
more  peacocks " 2  that  winter  than  Paetus  had  "  ever 
eaten  pigeons."  And  a  little  later  he  tells  how  he  en- 
deavored to  pay  off  his  obligations  by  a  handsome  dinner 
to  the  same  set  of  youths.  "  However,"  he  adds,  "  I  did 
not  attempt  to  have  peacock."3 

For  fish  there  seems  to  have  been  no  demand  whatever  in 
early  Roman  times,  although  the  taste  for  it  subsequently 
grew,  as  artificial  tastes  are  wont  to  do,  into  a  passion ; 


1  Cic.  Ad  Fain.  ix.  16.  2  cic.  Ad  Fam.  ix.  18. 

3  Cic.  Ad  Fam.  ix.  20. 


84  THE   PRIVATE   LIFE    OF   THE   ROMANS. 

so  that  the  word  obsonium,  originally  applied  to  any 
kind  of  cooked  food  except  bread,  came  to  signify  fish 
exclusively.  Already,  in  the  elder  Cato's  time,  fish  was 
dearer  than  beef ;  unheard-of  sums  were  paid  to  import 
alive  the  fish  of  other  countries,  and  fish-tanks  and  fish- 
ponds (piscinae)  for  the  cultivation  of  choice  varieties 
became  one  of  the  favorite  extravagancies  of  the  wealthy. 
Among  the  most  prized  of  the  native  species  were  the 
acipenser,  a  kind  of  sturgeon;  the  asp/Jus,  which  seems  to 
have  resembled  our  cod ;  lupus,  a  species  of  pike,  so 
named  from  its  voracity,  but  of  which  those  only  were 
approved  by  epicures  which  were  taken  in  the  Tiber,  — 
inter  duos  pontes  —  that  is,  in  the  neighborhood  of  the 
island;  the  mull  us,  or  mullet,  especially  the  bearded 
mullet,  which,  though  seldom  weighing  more  than  two 
Roman  pounds,  often  fetched  an  enormous  price ;  the 
rhombus,  a  kind  of  turbot;  and  later,  the  river-fish  of 
North  Italy,  of  the  Danube,  the  Rhine,  and  the  Moselle. 
There  was,  moreover,  a  vast  importation  of  different 
kinds  of  salted  and  pickled  fish  from  various  Mediter- 
ranean ports,  those  which  came  from  Spain,  Sardinia, 
and  Pontus  being  most  esteemed.  The  common  name 
for  all  these  preparations  was  tarichos,  a  word  borrowed 
from  the  Greek,  and  under  this  head  were  comprised 
many  different  sorts  and  grades.  There  was  tarichos 
made  from  fat  fishes  and  tarichos  made  from  lean ;  there 
was  a  delicate  variety  made  entirely  from  the  young  fry 
taken  in  the  spring,  and  a  coarser  but  still  highly  appe- 
tizing kind  made  from  the  large  slices  (Meldndrya)  cut 
from  the  back  of  the  thunnus,  or  tunny-fish;  first  salted 
and  dried  in  the  sun,  then  cooked  in  sea-water  or  oil,  and 
eaten  with  vinegar  and  mustard,  by  way  of  gustatdriiun. 
at  the  beginning  of  a  meal. 


FOOD.  85 

Salted  fish  was  of  course  a  cheaper  food  than  fresh. 
and  there  was  a  certain  savory  dish,  the  tyrotarichus, 
made  of  some  kind  of  tarichos,  eggs  and  cheese,  or  spices, 
which  was  the  subject  of  endless  jests  between  Cicero 
and  his  friends,  as  a  kind  of  symbol  of  resolute  frugality. 

Oysters  (ostreae)  were  considered  as  great  a  delicacy 
in  Roman  times  as  now.  Imported  in  the  first  instance 
from  the  East,  and  especially  from  Abydos,  they  came 
to  be  extensively  cultivated  in  the  neighborhood  of 
Naples,  especially  in  the  Avernine  and  Lucrine  lakes, 
and  subsequently  in  the  remotest  parts  of  the  western 
provinces.  In  the  time  of  Ausonius,  the  oysters  of  Bur- 
digala  (Bordeaux)  in  Gaul  were  particularly  relished. 
An  important  industry  also  grew  up  out  of  the  manufact- 
ure, in  seaport  towns,  of  three  kinds  of  fish-sauce,  garum, 
muria,  and  allex,  which  greatly  tickled  the  sophisticated 
Roman  palate.  Garum  was  made  chiefly  from  sturgeon 
or  mackerel;  muria  from  tunny.  Their  preparation  is 
not  perfectly  understood,  but  in  both  cases  the  fish 
appears  to  have  been  slightly  cooked  in  sea-water,  and 
allowed  to  ferment  for  several  months.  The  resultant 
mixture  was  then  strained,  and  the  clear  liquor,  which 
was  very  costly,  constituted  garum  or  muria,  the  resid- 
uum allex.  The  word  muria  was  also  used  for  any  brine, 
and  there  was  a  cheap  sort  of  allex,  home-made  from 
ordinary  fish,  which  was  given  to  slaves  as  a  relish  with 
their  porridge. 

Sugar  and  butter  were  unknown  among  the  Romans, 
their  place  being  supplied  by  honey  and  oil. 

A  few  words  only  need  be  given  in  this  place  to  the 
comprehensive  subjects  of  oil  and  wine ;  since  the  mode 
of  manufacturing,  from  the  olive  and  the  grape,  these 


86  THE    PRIVATE   LIFE   OF   THE    ROMANS. 

important  articles,  or  at  least  accessories  of  a  Roman 
diet,  will  be  fully  described  in  the  chapter  on  Agriculture. 
The  cultivation  of  the  olive  for  .oil  was  as  old  in  Italy  as 
the  time  of  the  Tarquins.  It  spread  thence  to  Gaul  and 
to  Spain ;  but  the  Italian  oils  were  always  considered 
the  best  in  the  world,  and  they  were  profitably  exported 
in  ancient  times,  as  they  are  to-day.  The  vine  was  native 
all  over  the  peninsula,  and  always  esteemed  a  pecul- 
iarly sacred  product  of  the  soil.  It  was  under  the  direct 
patronage  of  Jove,  in  whose  honor  were  celebrated,  on 
the  twenty-third  of  April  and  the  twentieth  of  August, 
the  feasts  of  the  Vindlia  Urbana  and  the  Vinalia  Rustica ; 
and  the  vintage  was  opened  by  the  Jldmen  didlis  with  a 
religious  ceremony.  These  pious,  old-fashioned  customs, 
however,  had  reference  merely  to  the  production  of  the 
ordinary  sour  wines  of  the  country,  like  Horace's  vile 
Sabinum,  or  that  acrid  wine  of  the  Alban  Mount,  which 
excited  the  merriment  of  Cineas,  the  ambassador  of  Pyr- 
rhus.1  The  careful  and  expensive  culture  of  the  vine  for 
the  production  of  choice  local  varieties  did  not  begin  in 
Italy  until  after  that  of  cereals  had  notably  declined. 

The  elder  Pliny  tells  us  in  his  Natural  History,2  that 
at  the  time  of  his  writing,  which  was  probably  about  50 
a.d.,  there  were  some  eighty  varieties  of  good  wine  in 
the  Roman  market,  of  which  number  nearly  two-thirds 
were  grown  in  Italy.  Excellent  kinds  were  raised,  on 
all  the  southern  slopes  of  the  Alban  hills,  at  Velitrse, 
at  Prseneste,  and  notably  at  Pormiae  upon  the  coast. 
Among  the  Sabine  wines,  the  once  renowned  Caecuban, 
which  Augustus  considered  the  noblest  wine  on  earth, 
and  which  chiefly  came  from  the  neighborhood  of  Terra- 

1  Plin.  Nat.  Hist,  xiv.  8.  2  Plin.  Nat.  Hist.  xiv.  11. 


FOOD.  87 

oina,  was  no  longer  grown  in  Pliny's  time,  and  its  name 
had  become  a  kind  of  general  expression  for  any  particu- 
larly excellent  vintage.  The  yet  more  famous  Falernian 
in  all  its  varieties,  brown  and  pale,  sweet  and  dry,  had 
also  lost  something  of  its  prestige,  owing  to  the  fact 
that  it  was  unscrupulously  adulterated.  But  the  prod- 
uct of  the  Mons  Massicus,  so  often  and  melodiously 
praised  both  by  Horace  and  Virgil,  still  held  its  pre- 
eminent place  among  the  wines  of  the  South,  and  fine 
varieties  were  grown  upon  Vesuvius,  in  all  the  environs 
of  Naples  and  Pompeii,  at  Cumae,  and  at  Sorrento.  The 
wine  of  the  latter  place  was  much  recommended  by  physi- 
cians, but  it  took  twenty-five  years  to  ripen,  and  Tiberius 
called  it  "  a  noble  vinegar."  There  was  a  brisk  demand 
for  certain  Sicilian  wines,  especially  those  of  Messala, 
Taormina,  and  Syracuse,  and  also  for  those  of  Central  and 
Eastern  Italy,  from  the  vineyards  about  Spoleto,  Ancona, 
and  Cesena,  near  Ravenna,  where,  indeed,  wine  was  not 
merely  more  wholesome,  but  cheaper  than  water.  From 
Aquileia  in  the  North  came  the  Vinum  Puclnum,  to  the 
use  of  which  Livia  ascribed  her  eighty-two  years  of  ex- 
ceptional health,  and  the  excellent  wine  of  Istria.  The 
Tuscan  wines,  as  a  whole,  were  considered  inferior ;  the 
best  was  that  which  came  from  the  higher  levels  of 
the  Mediterranean  coast,  near  the  white  marble  city  of 
Luna.  The  Rhsetic  wine  of  Verona  was  particularly 
esteemed  among  those  of  Cisalpine  Gaul. 

Wines  of  Spain,  Provence,  the  Mediterranean  islands, 
Greece,  and  Asia  Minor5  were  always  to  be  found  in  the 
Roman  market,  but  those  of  the  East  were  always  pre- 
pared for  transportation  by  a  treatment  with  sea-water 
and  resin.     Wines  which  ripened  slowly,  as  those  of  the 


88  THE   PRIVATE   LIFE   OF   THE    ROMANS. 


' 


far  South  almost  always  do,  were  often  taken  when  un 
fermented,  and  either  cooked  or  exposed  to  the  sun  o 
the  action  of  smoke  ;  and  there  were  Gallic  wines,  which: 
like  the   Scotch  whiskey  of  to-day,  always  retained  a 
peculiar  flavor  due  to  the  latter  process. 

Among  the  cheaper  fermented  drinks  relished  by  the 
Romans  were  cider,  perry,  date  and  mulberry  wines. 

Mention  has  already  been  made  of  the  beverage  called 
mulsum.  which  was  compounded  principally  of  wine  and 
honey,  and  sipped  at  the  beginning  of  a  meal ;  but  other 
condiments  were  added  to  this  mixture  in  almost  infinite 
variety ;  a  species  of  mulse  flavored  with  pepper,  and 
hence  called  pipperatum,  was  a  special  favorite,  while 
more  than  fifty  kinds  of  distilled  liqueurs  were  manu- 
factured from  the  juices  of  different  aromatic  plants. 


The  first  thing  to  be  noted  about  the  dress  of  the  Romans 

is  that  its  prevalent  material  was  always  woollen.    Sheep- 
raising  for  wool  was  practised  among  them  on  an  ex- 
tensive scale,  from  the  earliest  historic  times,  and  the 
choice  breeds  of  that  animal,  originally  imported  fi 
"V  Greece  or  Asia  Minor,  took  so  kindly  to  the  soil  ; 
climate  of  Italy  that  home-grown  wool  came  even  to 
preferred   to   the  foreign  for  fineness   and   softness 
quality.     Foreign  wools  were,  however,  always  impoi 
more  or  less,  partly  because  the  supply  of  native  wt 
seems  never  to  have  been  quite  sufficient,  partly  beca< 
the  natural  colors  of  wools  from  different  parts  vai 
so  considerably  as  to  render  the  art  of  the  flyer  to  s< 
extent  unnecessary.     Thus,  the  wools  of  Canusium  (C 
ossa)   were    brown    or    reddish,    those   of    Pollentia 


CLOTHING.  89 

(Liguria  were  black,  those  from  the  Spanish  Baetica, 
y  which  comprised  Andalusia  and  a  part  of  Granada,  had 
either  a  golden-brown  or  a  grayish  hue ;  the  wools  of 
Asia  were  almost  all  red ;  and  there  was  a  Grecian 
fleece,  called  the  crow-colored,  of  which  the  natural  tint 
was  a  peculiarly  deep  and  brilliant  black. 
-£  Goats'  wool  was  rarely  used  for  articles  of  clothing. 
Peasants,  and  especially  shepherds,  wrapped  themsel^s 
in  goat-skins,  as  they  still  do ;  but  only  the  wool  of  the 
long-haired  foreign  varieties  from  Spain,  Africa,  and 
Asia  Minor  l  was  regularly  woven  into"  rough  and  heavy 
cloths,  which  were  used  for  tent-coverings,  for  bagging 
in  cbmmorce,  for  blankets  and  warm  oversjioes,  and  to 
protect  the  outer  walls  of  houses  in  stormy  weather 
against  the  wind  and  rain.  Ropes  and  cables  were  also 
made  of  goats'  hair. 

Linen  cloth  made  from  the  fibre  of  flax  was  undoubt- 
edly an  Egyptian  invention ;  but  the  cultivation  of  the 
>  plant  was  ancient  all  over  Italy,  as  well  as  the  weaving 
of  home-spun  linen  fabrics,  for  the  undergarments  both 
of  men  and  women,  and  the  belts  and  girdles  of  the  lat- 
ter, for  the  bandages  needed  in  medical  practice,  and 
the  awnings-  {vela)  which  were  used  as  a  protection 
from  tlie  sun.  Linen  threads  were  also  made,  and  cords 
for  hunting  and  fishing-nets.  The  finer  grades  of  woven 
linen  required  in  later  and  more  luxurious  times  for 
handkerchiefs,  table-cloths,  napkins,  and  bedding,  and, 
finally  for  entire  suits  of  garments,  were  always  manu- 
factured abroad,  especially  at  Damascus,  Laodicea,  Tar- 
sus, and  Alexandria  ;  and  the  later  Emperors  had  private 

1Thr  hair-shirt  of  later  times,  cil  <%um,  got  its  name  from  the 
Cilician  goat. 


90  THE   PRIVATE   LIFE    OF    THE   ROMANS. 

linen  factories  both  in  the  East  and  at  Vienna  (Vienne 
in  France),  where  imperial  slaves  were  kept  at  work  to 
supply  the  requirements  of  the  court. 

Cotton  and  cotton  fabrics  came  always  from  the  far 
East.  Introduced  into  Greece  by  the  returning  soldiers 
of  Alexander  the  Great,  late  in  the  fourth  century  B.C., 
they  were  certainly  known  in  Rome  not  much  more  than 
a  hundred  years  afterwards,  for  we  find  the  word 
ccwbasina  applied  to  a  stuff  by  the  comic  poet  Csecilius 
Statins  in  191  b.c.  ;  now  carbasus  was  the  technical 
word  for  Indian  muslin,  and  it  is  identical  with  the 
Sanscrit  name  (Jcarpdst)  of  the  cotton-plant.  The  term 
was  no  doubt  often  loosely  employed  by  Roman  writers 
for  linen  as  well  as  cotton  fabrics ;  but  the  latter  had  the 
great  advantage  for  the  ancients  of  receiving  more  read- 
ily the  blue  and  purple  dyes  which  they  specially  affected, 
and  they  came  on  this  account  to  be  even  preferred  by 
many  for  purposes  of  personal  adornment. 

Silk  (sericum),  too,  was  an  article  of  Eastern  luxury, 
and  hardly  known  in  Rome  before  the  end  of  the  repub- 
lic. The  Roman  soldiers  had  indeed  seen  in  54  b.c.  the 
fluttering  of  silken  banners  wrought  with  gold,  and  borne 
before  the  advancing  Parthians  ;  but  not  until  the  time 
of  Augustus  do  we  find  frequent  mention  of  silken  gar- 
ments, of  which  three  varieties  are  distinguished,  —  the 
vestes  Coae,  the  vestes  bombycinae,  and  the  vestes  sericae. 
The  Coan  robes  were  extremely  costly,  transparently 
fine  and  thin  in  texture,  purple  in  color,  and  usually  em- 
broidered with  gold.  They  came  from  the  cocoon  of  the 
Chinese  worm,  and  derived  their  name  from,  the  JEgean 
island,  where  the  silken  yarn  was  spun,  dyed,  a. id  woven. 
The  vestes  bombycinae  came  chiefly  from  ^«^;    where 


CLOTHING.  91 

the  native  silk  was  yellowish  in  color,  not  silvery  white 
like  the  Chinese.  Vestis  serica  was  a  more  general  term, 
referring  doubtless  to  the  Chinese  product,1  which,  how- 
ever, was  more  often  imported  raw  or  in  loose  fabrics, 
which  were  subsequently  unravelled  and  mixed  with 
linen  or  wool,  then  rewoven  into  light  and  supple  stuffs 
for  the  so-called  vestes  subsericae.  By  the  fourth  century 
of  our  era  these  mixed  fabrics  had  come  into  rather 
general  use ;  but  vestes  holosericae,  or  garments  of  pure 
silk,  were  still  regarded  as  a  great  extravagance,  used 
only  by  very  luxurious  persons,  on  state  occasions,  or  for 
sumptuous  gifts.  It  was  the  Emperor  Justinian  who  in 
-  552  imported  the  first  silk-worms  into  Byzantium,  whence 
their  culture  spread  slowly  into  Western  Europe,  although 
only  one  out  of  the  dozen  or  more  varieties  native  in 
China  and  Japan,  the  bombyx  mori,  or  mulberry  silk- 
worm, ever  became  thoroughly  naturalized  and  profitable 
there. 

The  spinning  and  weaving  of  early  times  was,  for  the 
most  part,  done  at  home,  and  was  the  special  business  of 
the  mistress  of  the  house,  and  the  maids  whom  she 
directed.  The  spinner  held  the  distaff  (coins),  wrapped 
about  with  carded  wool,  in  her  left  hand,  under  her  left 
arm,  or  fastened  in  her  waist-band,  while  with  the  right 
hand  she  drew  out  the  fibres,  fastened  them  to  a  hook 
at  th'3  top  of  the  spindle  (fusus),  and,  twirling  them 
slightly  between  the  thumb  and  forefinger,  imparted  to 

lrThe  word  Seres  meant  first  silk-merchants,  but  came  afterward 
to  be  applied  to  all  Chinamen.  So  that  when  Virgil  speaks  (Georg. 
II.  121)  of  the  Seres  who  gather  off  the  trees  the  soft,  fleecy  threads 
which  the  native  worms  have  left  hanging  there,  he  may  have  used 
either  a  commercial  or  a  geographical  expression. 


92 


THE   PRIVATE   LIFE   OF   THE   ROMANS. 


V 


Colus  (Rich). 


the  hanging  spindle  a  rotary  motion,  which  continued 
of  itself  to  twist  the  lengthening  thread.     As  soon  as 

the  spindle  touched  the 
floor,  it  was  lifted,  the 
thread  already  spun  was 
wound  around  it,  and  the 
process  repeated.  When 
the  spindle  was  quite  full, 
the  thread  was  removed 
and  laid  in  the  calathus, 
or  spinning-basket. 

The  most  primitive  looms 
of  all  were  vertical,  and  the 
weaver  worked  standing. 
They  were  very  simple  in  construction,  consisting  of 
two  parallel  bars,  to  which  the  threads  of  the  warp  were 
attached,  above  and  below,  while  the  shuttle  containing 
the  thread  of  the  woof  was  passed  in  and  out  between 
them,  and  back  and  forth.  In  such  a  loom  the  web 
might  be  woven  either  upwards  or  downwards.  The 
term  sursum  versum,  regularly  applied  to  the  tunicae 
rectae,  which  young  people  of  both  sexes  assumed  at 
maturity,  is  thought  to  indicate  that  they  were  woven 
from  the  bottom  up.  Later  on,  horizontal  looms  were 
introduced,  at  which  the  weaver  sat.  They  were  iden- 
tical in  principle  with  the  hand-looms  of  every  age  and 
country,  and  substantially  the  same  in  arrangement; 
and  there  is  scarce  a  mountain  village  in  Italy  to-day 
where  a  contadina  may  not  be  seen  tending  a  fac-simile 
of  the  old  Roman  machine. 

All  woollen  cloths,  ant.,  most  of  all,  the  home-mr  ""e 
fabrics  of  the  early  republican  period,  had  to  be  finish. 


CLOTHING.  93 

by  the  fuller  (fullo)  before  they  were  fit  for  use.  They 
were  soaked  in  pits  (lacunae)  constructed  for  the  pur- 
pose, treated  with  chalk  and  other  alkalis,  dried,  washed, 
and  dried  again;  beaten  and  carded  until  the  separate 
threads  were  no  longer  visible ;  finally,  brushed,  shorn, 
and  pressed. 

s  The  fullers  were  early  organized  into  a  guild  (colle- 
gium), with  Minerva  for  their  patroness,  and  an  annual 
feast  upon  the  fifteenth  of  March;  and  their  art  was 
applied  not  only  to  the  preparation  of  new  cloths,  but  to 
the  cleansing  and  restoration  of  old  garments.  A  toga 
mad3  of  new  cloth,  with  a  full  nap,  was  called  a  pexa 
vestis;  after  it  had  begun  to  be  threadbare  it  was  said  to 
be  tnta  or  dejloccata;  when  it  had  been  whitened  and 
restored  by  the  fuller,  it  was  a  toga  interpolata. 

Taie  time  soon  came,  of  course,  when  homespun  goods 
no  longer  sufficed  for  the  clothing  of  Rome,  and  then 
large  factories  (officinae)  had  to  be  established  for  the 
weaving  both  of  woollen  and  linen  cloths.  Meanwhile 
it  is  certain  that,  with  one  very  important  exception,  the 
art  of  the  tinctor,  or  dyer,  was  seldom  employed  upon 
the  <>ld-fashioned  home-made  fabrics.  The  natural  tints, 
already  noted,  of  sundry  foreign  wools,  furnished  all  the 
variety  of  color  demanded  by  the  taste  of  a  primitive 
time,  especially  after  it  became  customary  to  import 
colored  flocks,  which  were  kept  strictly  separate  from 
the  white  home-breeds. 

Tb ;  one  exception  refers,  of  course,  to  that  historic 
pui>e,  which  was  so  highly  prized  as  a  mark  of  social 
and  official  rank;  whose  use  at  Rome  the  elder  Pliny 
believes 1  to  have   been  coeval  with  the  city  itself,  and 

1  °lin.  Nat.  Hist,  ix.  39. 


94  THE   PRIVATE   LIFE   OF   THE   ROMANS. 

borrowed  by  her  early  kings  from  the  conquered  so  ver- 
eigns  of  Etruria.  This  famous  dye,  in  all  its  infinitely 
varying  shades,  was  obtained  from  two  kinds  of  shell- 
fish, common  in  almost  every  part  of  the  Mediterranean 
Sea,  —  the  trumpet  shell  (bucinum  or  murex)  a~/;  ^^  true 
purple-shell1  (purpura  ok  pelagic). 

The  juice  of  the  first  was  crimson,  that  of  ulv  eecoiiu 
nearly  black.     It   was   collected,  mixed   with  salt,  and 
heated   in   metal  vessels  by  the  introduction  of  warm 
vapor.     The  color  of  the  bucihum  was  brilliant,  but  not 
lasting.     By  mixing  with  the  darker  purpura  jt  became 
fixed,  and  those  violet  or  amethystine  tints  were  produced 
which  appear  to  have  been  preferred  for  the  cldvus 
and  the  striped  borders  of  white  garments.     The  "true 
Tyrian  purple,  first  introduced  into  Rome  about  the 
die  of  the  last  century  B.C.,  was  produced  by  a  dq 
process  of  dyeing,  first  in  half -boiled purpura,  and  then  in 
bucinum.     A  fabric  thus  dyed  appeared  nearly  1 
shadow,  but  the  high,  lights  upon  its  folds  were 
glowing  red. 

A  pound  of  amethyst  or  v.;olet  wool  in  Caesar's 
was  worth  about  $20;  a  pound  of  real  Tyrian,  more  I 
ten  times  as  much.     At  a  later  period,  the  blatta^  ba  ^e 
into  use  for  both  grades  of  purple,  and  paler  shades  ti.  n 
those  of  the  original  dye,  as. well  as  a  whole  ran?e    'f 
blues,  were  produced  by  mixr]  vith  different  animal 

and  vegetable   substances.     (J  ear  •  scarlet  was  obt-vlu 
from  the  coccus  llicis,  a  spec^       >    cochineal,  and  from 
the  red  fucus,  or  rock-lichen.     The  triibea,  or  robe. worn 
by  augurs,  and  on  certain  occasions  by  equites  (knights,, 

1  The  latter  is  the  buccinium  lapUlis,  the  fprmer  the  mure:  bran- 

daris  of  modern  conchology. 


CLOTHING. 


95 


Paludamentum 
(Rich). 


was  of  striped  scarlet  and  purple.  The  paludamentum, 
■  y.  or  short  military  cloak  worn  by  a  Roman  general 
over  his  armor,  was  of  a  reddish  purple,  but  robes 
made  entirely  of  blatta,  or  fine  pure  purple, 
were  considered  strictly  appropriate  only 
'  /  for  triumphatores,  who  also  had  them  richly 
(  embroidered,  and  later  for  imperial  per- 
sonages. That  their  use  was  constantly 
affected  by  others  is,  however,  evinced  by 
the  prohibitive  decrees  of  different  em- 
perors, as  well  as  by  a  very  curious  pas- 
sage- in  Ovid  1  in  which  he  gives  it  as  his 
opinion  that  costly  robes  of  pure  purple 
are  unbecoming  to  a  woman.  He  advises 
instead  pale  sky-blue  or  rose  pink,  a  very 
faint  amethyst,  or  sea-green.  Otherwise  the  deep  tint  of 
the  Paphian  myrtle,  the  soft  gray  of  a  crane's  plumage, 
the  brown  of  acorns  or  of  almond-shells.  All  this  proves 
very  good  taste  on  the  poet's  part,  and  that  the  superi- 
ority in  costume  of  half-tints  over  pure  colors  was  already 
acknowledged  by  the  truly  aesthetic. 

We  come  now  to  the  form  of  garments  both  masculine 
and  feminine.  From  the  earliest  historic  period  the 
V  Romans  appear  to  have  worn  at  least  two  articles  of 
clothing,  —  a  tunic  and  a  toga.  Some  wore  instead  of  the 
'■  '<■  m  uuder-garment  called  the  subUyuoilum.  which 
tyas  1  MIe<xm<)re  than  such  a  bandage  as  the  gymnasts 
wore  when  exercising,  and  which  was  preferably,  if  not 
alwaj  si  made  of  linen.  The  tunic  was  necessary  indoors, 
however,  where  it  was  considered  bad  .manners  not  to 
lay  t]  iside.     The  tunic    v*as  a  species  of  woollen 

i  (>v  A--  Ajn  iii.  109-188. 


96  THE   PRIVATE   LIFE   OF   THE   ROMANS. 

/ 
shirt,  made  with  front  and  back  pieces,  which  were  sewn 

together  on  the  shoulders  and  under  the  arms.     Either 
it  had  no  sleeves,  or  the  sleeves  were  short,  not  reaching 

below  the  elbow.      Long-sleeved  tunics 
(tunicae  manicatae  or  manuledtae)  were 
considered  the  height  of  effeminacy,  and 
never  came  into  general  use  before  the 
third  or  fourth  century  of  our  era.     The 
tunics  of  the  common  people  were  belted 
in   above   the   hips,    and   did   not   hang 
below  the    knee.      Those  who  were   en- 
titled to  the  cldvus  latus,  or  broad  purple 
^stripe  down  the  front,  which  was  always 
Tunica  (Rich).        so  arranged  as  to  hang  outside  the  girdle, 
wore  them  somewhat  longer;  soldiers  and 
travellers,  even  shorter.     In  the  time  of  Plautus  it  had 
become  customary  to  wear  also  an  undershirt  or  tunic, 
called  the  tunica  interior  or  subucula,   which  was   also 
regularly  made  of  wool,  never  of  linen,  until  late  im- 
perial times. 

We  have  already  seen  how  the  toga  was  first  put  on 
at  the  age  of  maturity,  with  public  and  impressive  cere- 
monies. It  remains  to  say  a  few  words  concerning  the 
shape  and  arrangement  of  this  celebrated  garment.  It 
■•was  of  white  woollen  cloth,  which  in  the  case  of  carnle 
magistrates  had  narrow  purple  stripes  inwoven  tot 
border.  It  appears  to  have  come  from  the  loom  '■■■  &i< 
'oblong  form,  and  afterwards  to  have  been  rounded 
corners  into  that  of  an  ellipse.  Its  length  must  btf  three 
times  the  wearer's  height  measured  downwards  frcm  the 
shoulder.  Its  breadth  varied  greatly  with  time,  ftishion, 
and  the  quality  of  the  cloth.     The  toga  of  t -ie   early 


CLOTHING. 


97 


period  was  comparatively  narrow,  and  the  rough,  coarse 
fabric  of  which  it  was  made  permitted  no  artistic  ar- 
rangement. In  those  days  the  toga  was  the  garment 
of  Avar  as  well  as  of  peace,  and  when  worn  in  the  field 
it  had  no  loosely  hanging  ends,  but  was  bound  tightly 
around  the  body  in  what  was  called  the  ductus  Gabinus. 
Later,  after  the  introduction  of  the  sagum^  or  short 
square  military  cloak,  fastened  upon  the  shoulder  with 
a,  fibula,  or  brooch,  the  toga  became  the 
distinctive  garb  of  peace,  and  gave  scope 
for  enormous  vanity,  both  in  its  texture 
and  in  the  mode  of  wearing  it.  It  was 
made  of  ever  finer  and  finer  cloth,  the 
supple  folds  of  which  were  assiduously 
studied  and  arranged.  The  broader  the 
cloth,  it  was  observed,  the  more  graceful 
the  effect  which  could  be  given  these 
folds,  hence  the  fashionable  toga  in- 
creased in  width,  until  it  became  nearly 
circular,  and  Horace  jeers1  at  the  f reed- 
man  who  paraded  the  Sacred  Way  in  a 
toga  four  yards  (bis  trium  ulnarum)  wide,  to  the  scandal 
of  the  passers-by.  «" 

This  elliptical  garment  was  first  folded,  not  exactly  on 
its  longest  axis,  but  so  as  to  leave  the  edges  a  little  way 
apart  One  end  of  the  folded  cloth  was  now  flung  over 
tlm  h  ft  shoulder  from  behind  so  as  to  fall  to  the  feet  in 
front.  The  remaining  two-thirds  of  its  length  were  then 
brought  around  under  the  right  arm,  and  the  folded  cloth 
so  spread  as  to  cover  the  right  side  from  the  armpit  to 
the  calf  of  the  leg.     It  was  then  gathered  and  carried  up 

1  Hor.  Epod.  iv.  7, 8. 


Cinctus  Gabinus 
(Rich). 


98  THE   PRIVATE    LIFE    OF   THE   ROMANS. 

across  the  breast,  to  be  thrown  backward  over  the  left 
shoulder.  The  diagonal  breast-folds  constituted  the 
sinus,  which  often  served  the  purposes  of  a  pocket.  The 
portion  of  the  toga  first  thrown  over*  the  left  shoulder, 
and  lying  beneath  the  sinus,  was  in  later  times  pulled 
up  so  as  to  hang  a  little  way  over  it  in  what  was  called 
the  nodus,  or  umbo.  This  precaution  was  supposed  to 
give  firmness  to  the  whole  arrangement ;  but  the  toga 
must  always,  one  would  think,  have  been  fastened  to  the 
tunic,  at  least  upon  the  shoulder,  else  it  is  impossible  to 
conceive  how  the  wearer  could  have  had  any  freedom 
either  of  locomotion  or  gesticulation.  There  seems  some 
reason  to  believe  that  the  toga  of  imperial  times  was  cut 
out  in  the  form  of  a  semi-ellipse,  and  partially  fitted  to 
the  person,  while  a  portion  was  pressed  into  fine  folds 
by  the  fuller  before  wearing.  At  the  opening  of  the 
temple  of  Janus  at  the  Ambarvalia,  or  ceremony  of 
blessing  the  fields  for  a  good  harvest  (which  was  ob- 
served on  May  27th,  and  is  still  observed  in  most  Latin 
countries),  and  upon  certain  other  solemn  public  occa- 
sions, the  Gabinian  or  girded  toga  was  regularly  worn. 

Candidates  for  office  derived  their  name  from  the  cus- 
tom which  required  them  to  appear  in  a  toga  Candida,  or 
pure  white  toga,  either  quite  new  or  freshly  treat       a  ith 
chalk.     The  mourning  toga  was  originally  black     later 
""  the  darkest  blue  was  also  worn. 

The    working-classes    used,   for    defence    again;  t   the 

*  weather,  an  outer  cloak  called  paenula,  made  of  thick, 

•  hairy,  dark-colored  frieze,  or  even  oTle.VJier.  It  had  no 
sleeves,  but  was  usually  provided  with  a  hood  (cucuUks), 
and  hooked  or  buttoned  clos  ,ly  all- down  the  front.  The 
obvious  ponvpnipnpp  ami  snij  ^OQe  of  this  garment  caused 


CLOTHING.  99 

it  eventually  to  be  adopted  as  a  travelling  wrap  by  men, 
and  even  women,  of  all  ranks,  and  the  host's  first  duty  to 
a  guest  was  to  unfasten  his  paenula.1 

The  birrus  or  burrus  was  another  outside  garment  of 
similar  cut,  made  usually  of  rough,  red  cloth.  The 
lacerna  was  of  lighter  and  more  elegant  material,  and 
worn  outside  the  toga,  less  for  use  than  for  show.  Even- 
ing-dress, as  we  understand  it,  was  represented  by  the 
vestis  cenatoria,  which  appears  to  have  been  an  exceed- 
ingly light  and  airy  mantle,  presumably  of  rich  material, 
and  almost  always  gaily  colored,  —  green,  blue,  crimson, 
and  variegated.  It  was  easily  thrown  on  and  off  and 
sometimes  changed  several  times  in  the  course  of  one 
ceremonious  dinner. 

The  primitive  Roman,  like  the  barbarian  everywhere, 
was  long-haired  and  long-bearded.  The  razor  and  the 
shears  —  novacula  and  forfex — are  indeed  mentioned 
early,  the  former  in  the  reign  of  Tarquinius  Priscus ; 
but  Ave  are  expressly  told  by  the  elder  Pliny,2  that  Scipio 
-ciiritianus  was  the  first  Roman  who  ever  shaved  daily, 
rvnile  the  beard  of  Augustus  was  always  cut.  The  first 
hair  cut  from  the  head  of  a  child,  and  a""youth's  first 
Vaiti,  were  consecrated  to  the  gods;  but  the  coins  of 
th  late  republican  period  show  plainly  that  young  men 
usr  ■•  rly  wore  a  beard,  though  carefully  trimmed  and 
dre    ed,  and  were  seldom  clean-shaven  before  forty.     To 

1  Hence,  too,  scindere  paniulam  (to  rend  the  cloak)  became  pro- 
vt  >-Ma\  for  giving  a  visitor  a  pressing  invitation  to  remain ;  and  we 
'  ,.l  Cicero  saying  to  Atticus  (Ep.  xiii.  33)  of  an  unwelcome  guest, 

Heel  ita  feci,  ut  non  scinderem  paenulam"  meaning  that  he  sent^ 
Vim         lit  his  business  without  delay. 

2  .  Nat.  Hist.  vii.  59. 


100  THE   PKIVATE   LIFE   OF   THE   ROiviaj>». 

let  the  beard  grow  long  was  a  sign  of  mourning,  whether 
for  private  loss  or  public  calamity,  and  continued  to  be 
so  regarded  until  the  Emperor  Hadrian  re-introduced 
the  fashion  of  the  full  beard  even  for  middle-aged  and 
elderly  men. 

There  were  frequent  changes,  also,  in  the  mode  of 
masculine  hair-dressing.  In  Cicero's  time  it  was  elabo- 
rate, and  depilatories  and  hair-tongs  (psUothra  and  cala- 
mistri)  were  among  the  barber's  regular  weapons,  whether 
the  latter  were  a  house-slave,  or  the  keeper  of  a  tonstrina, 
or  barber's  shop.  In  the  time  of  Marcus  Aurelius  the 
artificially  curled  and  perfumed  head  was  no  longer 
considered  in  good  taste.  Later,  it  became  fashionable 
for  even  imperial  personages  to  wear  the  hair  close- 
clipped,  like  athletes  and  the  Stoics. 

For  head-gear  the  Romans  had  the  plleus  and  the 
petasus.    The  former  was  a  close-fitting  felt  cap,  worn  bv 

sailors    and    artisans,    Jw    a 
freedman  as  the  sign  of  ti 
emancipation,    and    b} 
whole     population    01 
D..      ,D.  . ,  Saturnalia,     but     othe.vif 

Pileus  (Rich). 

used   by  the    upper   cl 
only  when  journeying.     The  petasus  was  a  felt  hat 
a  round  brim,  worn  principally 
by   comic   actors,    and  by   the         £. 
spectators  in  a  theatre,  as  a  pro- 
tection against  the  light  from 
above.     A  well-born  Roman  of 
the    best    period,    however,—  p< 

whether     man     or     woman,  — 
usually  disdained  any  species  of  hat  01 
abroad  uncovered. 


CLOTHING. 


101 


For  the  clothing  of  their  feet,  the  Bomans  made  use 
both  of  shoes  (calcei)  and  sandals  (sandalid).  Every 
Roman  order  and  every  great  tribe  or  gens  had  a 
distinctive  kind  of  shoe.  The  ordinary  calceus  patricius, 
or  patrician  shoe,  also 
called  mulleus,  was 
made  of  red  leather, 
with  a  high  heel,  and 
straps  to  fasten  it 
about  the  ankle.  It 
had  also  a  crescent- 
shaped  ornament  up- 
on the  front,  called 
the  lunula,  which  was 
of  very  ancient  origin, 
and  seems,  like  the 
bulla,  to  have  had 
the  force  of  a  charm. 
The  second  grade  of 
shoe,  only  a  little  less  dignified  than  the  mulleus,  was 
the  calceus  senator ius,  which  was  of  black  leather,  with 
aps  and  no  lunula.  Another  kind  of  shoe,  called 
and  rather  resembling  a  boot,  worn  in  Avet  or 

"-  y  weather,  and  always  by  the  equites,  was  also  black, 
by  a  simple  tie.  The' ladies  of  the  higher 
out  of  doors,  calcei,  made  of  a  fine  leather 

lied  alula,  and  richly  embroidered  in  silk  and  gold. 
At  home,  both  men  and  women  preferred  to  wear  sandals, 
(  l-  simple  soles,  bound  to  the  foot  with  straps  or  ribbons, 
but  it  was  long  "regarded  as  a  great  breach  of  etiquette 

wear  sandals  abroad.     The  craft  of  the  sator,  or  shoe- 
as  Strays  a  particularly  respectable  one,  and 


Shoes  and  sandals  (Becker's  Gallus). 


102 


THE   PRIVATE   LIFE   OF    THE   ROMANS. 


theirs   was    one   of    the    original    colleges    founded    b; 
Numa. 

The  civilized  Roman  lady,  like  her  lord  of  the  same 
period,  wore  three  garments,  —  a  tunica  intima,  a  stola, 
and  a  palla.  The  woollen  undergarment'  was  virtually 
the  same  for  both  sexes.     The  stola  was  much  longer 

than  the  masculine  tunic,  slit 
open  at  the  top  on  either 
side  for  the  passage  of  the 
arms,  fastened  again  upon 
the  shoulders  with  clasps 
or  brooches  (fibulae),  which 
were  often  articles  of  great 
value.  It  was  usually  fin- 
ished at  the  bottom  by  a  ruf- 
fled border  or  flounce  called 
the  instita,  which  admitted  of 
embroidery  or  other  decora- 
tion. Sometimes  it  had  tight 
sleeves  reaching  to  the  elbow 
and  fastened  together  on  the 
back  of  the  arm  with  gold  or 
jewelled  buttons,  a  charming 
mode,  represented  upon  many 
existing  statues.  The  stola 
was  confined  at  the  waist  bjr 
a  girdle,  but  pulled  up  so  as 
to  conceal  the  latter  by  its 
falling  folds  (rugae).  This 
beautiful  garment  was  the  matron's  robe  of  ho™  r 
only  married  women  of  unblemished  reput 
allowed  to  wear  it. 


Euterpe  with  stola  and  palla 
(Baumeister). 


The  palla  wal  ^Kt  ^U(f 

of  the  toga,  and  wa*  ^  ^  teo9 


square  or  oblong  piece  of  &.  *^ 

left  shoulder  and  falling  to  the  i^  *0f 

the  back,  either  above  or  below  the  rig,, 
thrown  backward  over  the  left  arm  or  shou. 
the  toga,  it  could,  if  necessary,  be  drawn  up  o\\.. 
head.  Women  of  the  lower  orders,  or  those  not  privileged 
to  wear  the  stola  wore,  directly  over  the  under-tunic,  a 
palla  made  of  woollen  cloth,  turned  over  at  the  top  and 
folded  round  the  body  under  the  arms,  then  drawn  up 
and  fastened  upon  either  shoulder  with  clasps  or  simple 
buckles.  It  thus  lay  double  over  the  breast  and  back, 
but  fell  in  a  single  thickness  to  the  feet.  To  judge  by 
the  management  of  the  folds  in  existing  illustrations,  the 
stuffs  most  affected  for  their  outer  garments  by  Eoman 
women  who  aspired  to  elegance,  were  always  fine  and 
thin.  The  mixed  fabrics  already  described,  of  silk  and 
wool  or  silk  and  linen,  were  probably  most  employed, 
pure  silk  being  always  an  article  of  great  luxury,  while 
the  very  fine  linen  and  cotton  stuffs  to  which  the  word 
byssus  was  indifferently  applied,  were  a  late  fashion  and 
fit  only  for  summer  garments. 

We  have  already  learned  from  Ovid  how  wide  was  the 
lange  of  colors  from  which  a  Roman  belle  could  choose. 
She  enjoyed  hardly  less  latitude  in  her  hair-dressing, 
the  styles  of  which  were  infinite.  The  graceful  antique 
fashion  had  beeivto  gather  the  hair  altogether  in  a  knot 
at  the  back  of  the  head,  sometimes  low  in  the  neck,  but 
oftener  lifted  high  upon  the  crown,  and  we  find  the  early 
fathers  of  the  Christian  Church,  —  Jerome,  Tertullian, 
Prudentius,  —  pleading   earnestly    for   a  return   to  this 


102  THE   PRIVATE   LIFE   ots    THE   ROMANS. 

theirs  warn  simple  mode,  and  sternly  denouncing  the 
ugly  and  costly  artificial  structure  of  cushions,  braids, 
and  curls  then  greatly  in  vogue.  Entire  wigs  (capilla- 
menta)  were  much  worn  in  the  first  century,  and  those 
made  of  blonde  hair  brought  very  high  prices. 

Gold  and  jewelled  ornaments,  ^anfiuli  (rings),  monllia 
(necklaces),  armillae  (bracelets),  worn  either  at  the  wrist 
or  above  the  elbow,  with  a  sleeveless  tunic,  were  affected 
both  by  men  and  women  of  fashion,  and  were  often  of 
exquisite  workmanship.  All  the  principal  precious  stones, 
diamonds,  rubies,  emeralds,  opals,  were  known  to  the 
Romans,  but  the  gem  which  they  prized  above  all  others 
was  the  pearl ;  and  unheard-of  prices  were  paid  for  large 

!  single  specimens,  to  be  worn  as  ear-drops  or  upon  the 
brow.  Julius  Caesar  is  said  to  have  given  to  Servilia,  the 
mother  of  Marcus  Brutus,1  a  solitaire  pearl  for  which  he 
paid  six  million  sesterces  ($262,500),  while  Caligula 
received  with  his  wife  Lollia  Paulina  a  complete  parure 
of  pearls  and  emeralds,  which  was  an  heirloom  in  her 

,  family ;  a  part  of  the  spoil  taken  in  Eastern  war  by  her 
grandfather,  Marcus  Lollius,  in  the  year  2  B.C.,  and  val- 
ued at  forty  million  sesterces2  ($2,180,000).  Slippers 
embroidered  with  seed  pearls  were  common  among  the 
rich,  and  sometimes  affected,  as  the  elder  Pliny  complains, 
even  by  the  comparatively  poor. 

1  Suet.  Caes.  50.  2  Plin.  Nat.  Hist.  ix.  35. 


C-l 

- 

3 


x 


-Jl 


V 


\B>.  ARy 


OF  THE 


UNIVERSITY 


AGRICULTURE.  105 


CHAPTER  V. 

AGRICULTURE. 

Small  holdings  were  certainly  the  rule  among  the  early 
Romans.  Tradition  even  averred  that  Romulus  had  al- 
lotted to  each  of  his  followers  but  two  iugera l  of  land. 
After  the  expulsion  of  the  kings,  the  tribune  Licinius 
was  said  to  have  decreed  an  allowance  per  capita  of  seven 
iugera.  This  did  not  apparently  prevent  a  proprietor 
from  increasing  his  possessions  if  he  saw  fit,  but  laws 
more  decidedly  restrictive  had  soon  to  be  passed.  Five 
hundred  iugera  was  fixed  as  the  maximum  holding,  and 
one  of  the  reforms  which  the  Gracchi  favored  was  a  fur- 
ther reduction  to  two  hundred. 

The  former  number  remained  the  nominal  maximum 
down  to  historic  times,  and  even  after  the  restrictive 
law  had  become  a  dead  letter,  there  was  a  sentiment  in 
favor  of  small  holdings.  "  Praise  large  farms,  but  till  a 
small  one,"  is  the  witty  precept  of  Virgil.2 

Naturally,  as  the  farm  increased  in  extent,  the  mode  of 
working  it  became  more  complex.  Two  iugera  the 
owner  could  manage  without  assistance ;  when  his  pos- 
sessions increased  to  seven,  he  may  have  had  a  slave  or 
two  to  aid  him,  and  perhaps  an  ass ;  but  seven  iugera 
would  certainly  not  support  a  pair  of  oxen,  and  indeed 

1  About  1]  acres  :  see  table.  -  Geor.  ii.  412-18, 


106  THE   PRIVATE   LIFE    OF    THE    ROMANS. 

the  spade  always  held  its  own  against  the  plough  in 
Roman  agriculture. 

In  the  management  of  large  holdings  three  methods 
appear  to  have  been  practised.  A  farm  might  be  let  for 
a  fixed  money  rent,  or  let  on  shares  with  the  rent  paid  in 
kind,  or  the  owner  might  choose  to  be  his  own  farmer, 
making  use  of  either  slave  labor  or  free,  or  what  was 
perhaps  most  common  of  all,  having  a  permanent  staff  of 
slaves,  and  supplementing  these  with  hired  hands  at  the 
seasons  when  work  pressed,  as-  at  the  vintage. 

In  choosing  a  farmstead,  the  chief  thing  to  be  avoided 
was  an  unhealthy  district.  A  marshy  soil  was  always  to 
be  shunned,  and  so  was  a  river-bank,  though  an  ample 
water-supply  was  indispensable.  The  ideal  situation  was 
a  hillside  gently  sloping  to  the  east.  Here  the  master's 
residence  could  be  adapted  to  receive  the  sun  in  winter 
and  the  breeze  in  summer,  drainage  was  easily  managed, 
and  the  very  best  soil  for  vineyards  and  olive-orchards 
secured.  Facility  of  transportation  for  the  farm-produce 
was  a  great  desideratum,  yet  Columella1  advises  against 
a  situation  immediately  on  a  high-road,  both  on  account 
of  the  depredations  of  the  casual  passer-by,  and  because 
of  the  perpetual  calls  on  the  owner's  hospitality. 

The  estate  purchased,  the  proprietor's  first  care  was  to 
have  its  boundaries  clearly  established.  There  was  a 
pleasant  fashion  of  following  its  outer  line  with  a  close- 
■set  row  of  trees  all  of  one  kind,  as  elm,  ash,  or  cypress ; 
or  it  might  be  enclosed  with  hedge  or  fence,  or  by  a  ditch 
and  earthen  bank.  Otherwise  its  limits  were  indicated 
merely  by  boundary  stakes. 

The  next  point  to  be  considered  was  the  choice  of  a 

i  Col.  De  Re  Rus.  i.  5. 


AGRICULTURE.  107 

crop  adapted  to  the  soil,  and  we  find  great  difference  of 
opinion  among  the  writers  on  agriculture  as  to  those 
which  promised  the  best  return.  All  agree,  however,  in 
lamenting  that  so  many  estates  were  given  over  to  the 
grazing  of  cattle  and  sheep,  to  the  detriment  of  agri- 
culture proper.  The  majority  follow  Cato  in  giving 
their  first  preference  to  a  choice  vineyard,  though  the 
vine  required  more  labor  than  any  other  crop.  To  one 
hundred  iugera  of  vineyard  Cato  allows  ten  laborers,  one 
ox-herd,  and  one  yoke  of  oxen,  one  ass-driver  with  three 
asses  (two  for  the  carts  and  one  for  the  mill),  a  swine- 
herd, and  a  man  to  look  after  the  willow  plantations, 
from  which  came  the  withies  for  binding  the  vine,  while 
all  the  osier  baskets  required  in  stripping  the  vines, 
gathering  the  grapes,  etc.,  were  woven  on  the  premises. 

Two  hundred  and  forty  iugera  of  olive-orchards  were 
stated  by  the  same  authority  to  require  five  laborers, 
three  ox-herds  for  as  many  yoke  of  oxen,  a  pig-tender,  an 
ass-driver  with  four  asses,  and  a  shepherd  with  a  hun- 
dred sheep. 

The  farm-hands,  whether  many  or  few,  were  always 
under  the  supervision  of  a  vilicus  and  vilica,  an  over- 
seer and  a  housekeeper,  as  we  might  say.1  This  pair 
was  often,  though  not  invariably,  husband  and  wife.  The 
overseer  had  to  keep  a  sharp  lookout  over  the  slaves  by 
night  and  day,  provide  their  food  and  clothing,  see  that 
the  farm-tools  were  in  good  condition,  and  in  general 
that  everything  might  be  ready  for  the  master's  inspec- 
tion at  any  moment.  The  sphere  of  the  mlica  was 
within  doors,  except   for   the   care   of  the  gallinarium, 

1  These  offices  are  perpetuated  on  the  Italian  villa  farm,  where 
a  fattore  and  fattoressa  are  always  to  be  found. 


108  THE   PRIVATE   LIFE   OF   THE   ROMANS. 

or  poultry-yard,  where,  if  there  were  ever  a  dearth  of 
fowls  or  eggs,  she  was  the  person  held  responsible. 
She  saw  to  the  cooking  and  sweeping,  the  pickling 
and  preserving.  She  was  also  warned  to  be  no  gad- 
about, and  not  to  presume  to  offer  any  sacrifices ;  for 
the  master  of  the  house  undertook  the  religious  respon- 
sibilities of  the  whole  faynilia.  Yet  on  feast-days,  and 
on  the  Calends,  Nones,  and  Ides  of  each  month,  she 
was  to  adorn  her  hearth  with  a  wreath  of  flowers,  and 
offer  to  the  Lares  her  prayers  for  plenty. 

The  food  of  the  familia  rustica  consisted  of  a  liberal 
daily  allowance  of  bread,  wine,  oil,  salt,  and  some  sort 
of  relish,  such  as  pickled  olives  or  fish.  Every  two  years 
the  hands  received  a  pair  of  wooden  shoes,  and  on  alter- 
nate years  a  tunic  and  a  hooded  cloak  of  shaggy  cloth 
(sagatus  cucullus).  They  were  also  supplied  with  patch- 
work coverings  called  centones,  made  up  by  the  female 
slaves  from  the  sound  bits  of  all  sorts  of  cast-off  gar- 
ments, which  might  be  used  either  as  bedding,  or  by  way 
of  protection  from  the  rain.  Special  favors  in  the 
matter  of  diet  and  clothing  were  often  shown  to  highly 
deserving  slaves;  but  the  punishment,  even  of  trifling 
offences,  was  frequently  barbarous. 

The  slaves  were  divided  into  those  who  worked  in 
fetters  (comjiediti,  alligati),  and  those  who  were  allowed 
liberty  of  motion ;  and  a  great  distinction  was  made  in 
their  housing  ;  for  while  the  latter  had  a  large  common 
room  where  they  might  meet  in  the  evening  and  on 
rainy  days,  and  separate  cells  to  sleep  in,  airy,  above 
ground,  and  with  a  southern  aspect,  the  former  were 
lodged  in  basements  lighted  only  by  narrow  windows  too 
high  to  be  reached  by  the  hand,  and  in  these  underground 


yy, 


)    y 


^miimnnwim'  »^.>w<HIP<«p» 


3 

— 

0 

► 


H 

DC 

a 


tc 


AGRICULTURE.  109 

chambers  refractory  cases  were  kept  at  indoor  work  by 
day.  There  would  also  be  upon  large  properties  a  sep- 
arate balneum,  or  bath,  for  the  slaves. 

The  farmer  is  earnestly  warned  against  over-building ; 
but  the  constructions  prescribed  as  necessary  for  the 
farm  activities  seem  to  furnish  an  ample  allowance. 
The  rapid  increase  of  luxury  in  the  two  hundred  and 
fifty  years  between  Cato  and  Columella  is  clearly  shown 
by  the  difference  in  their  provisions.  The  buildings 
enumerated  by  the  latter  are  certainly  more  elaborate 
than  anything  to  be  found  upon  Italian  farms  to-day, 
though  many  of  his  precepts  are  still  implicitly  obeyed. 
And  since  he,  too,  prefaces  his  description  by  strenuous 
injunctions  not  to  build  too  extensively,  his  account  may 
be  taken  as  affording  a  fair  idea  of  an  affluent  Roman 
farmstead. 

The  master's  dwelling,  or  villa  proper,  stood  a  little 
apart  from  the  rest  of  the  buildings,  with  long  ranges  of 
rooms  for  summer  and  winter,  covered  galleries,  and  a 
separate  bath.  Nearly  all  the  other  structures  were 
grouped  about  a  great  central  court-yard  (cors),  which 
was  carefully  enclosed,  and  had  but  a  single  gateway, 
affording  the  only  means  of  entrance  not  merely  to  the 
court-yard  itself,  but  to  the  surrounding  stables  and  store- 
houses. Over  this  gateway  in  large  establishments  a 
porter  or  janitor  always  presided.  In  those  of  less  pre- 
tension, the  vilicus  had  his  rooms  there,  and  it  was  his 
place  to  see  that  no  one  passed  after  dark  without  his 
knowledge.  Here,  too,  was  chained  the  watch-dog,  with 
the  broad  spiked  collar,  familiar  to  us  from  old  mosaics, 
who  had  been  carefully  trained  to  his  duties  of  defence. 
On  this  same  side  of  the  court-yard  were  the  slaves' 
quarters  and  the  farm-kitchen. 


110  THE   PRIVATE    LIFE   OF   THE   ROMANS. 

The  court-yard  was  always  kept  strewn  with  litter, 
which  was  removed  from  time  to  time,  and  added  to  the 
manure-heaps.  These  last  were  built  within  the  court, 
and  allowed  to  ripen  for  at  least  a  twelvemonth,  before 
being  applied  to  the  land.  Here,  too,  was  a  pool  of  fresh 
water,  not  only  for  watering  the  stock,  but  large  enough 
for  oxen  to  bathe  in.  It  was  supplied  by  running  water, 
where  this  was  practicable,  in  other  cases,  by  rain-water, 
which  the  Komans  well  understood  the  art  of  collecting 
and  utilizing. 

First  in  importance  among  the  stabula,  or  buildings 
for  sheltering  the  animals,  were  the  bubilia  for  the  oxen 
and  cows.  These  were  long,  narrow  buildings,  usually  set 
at  right  angles  with  one  side  of  the  court-yard,  and  they 
accommodated  only  a  single  range  of  cattle,  with  room 
for  a  passage-way  before  their  mangers.  Six  or  seven  feet 
above  the  ground  ran  a  horizontal  beam,  to  which  the 
animals  were  tied.  The  flooring  was  of  wood  or  stone, 
and  well  bedded  with  coarse  hay  or  straw,  and  the  barn 
seems  often,  if  not  always,  to  have  had  a  loft  for 
storing  fodder. 

Cattle  were  bred  rather  with  a  view  to  their  powers 
of  draught,  than  for  beef,  as  is  clearly  seen  in  the  points 
given  of  a  model  ox.  The  favorite  color  was  red  or  dun, 
though  we  find  frequent  allusions  to  the  fine  silver  gray 
breed  of  Central  Italy,  still  extensively  maintained.  On 
account  of  the  difficulty  of  acclimatizing  foreign  breeds, 
the  farmer  who  wished  to  form  a  herd  was  advised  to 
buy  young  cattle  in  his  own  neighborhood,  and  to  make 
the  following  stipulation  with  the  vendor : 1  "  Do  you 
answer   for   it,    that   these   two-year-olds   are   perfectly 

iVarr.  R.E.  ii.  5. 


AGRICULTURE.  Ill 

sound,  and  from  a  healthy  herd,  and  that  the  purchase 
of  them  will  involve  me  in  no  trouble  ?  " 

Bullocks  were  usually  broken  to  the  plough  when  three 
years  old,  and  this  was  most  carefully  and  thoroughly 
done,  as  was  indeed  necessary,  seeing  that  the  man  who 
held  the  plough  drove  as  well.  This  slave,  the  bubulcus, 
also  took  care  of  his  yoke  of  oxen,  washing  and  carding 
them,  and  giving  them  a  sort  of  massage  treatment,  sup- 
posed to  prevent  the  skin  from  adhering  to  the  flesh. 
He  is  further  recommended  to  give  them  each  a  quart 
of  wine  if  they  come  back  tired  from  the  field.1 

The  working  of  from  eighty  to  a  hundred  iugera  was 
given  to  one  yoke  of  oxen ;  but  in  ploughing,  they  were 
only  allowed  to  draw,  without  breathing,  what  seems  to 
us  the  incredibly  short  furrow  of  one  hundred  and 
twenty  Roman  feet.2  The  yoke  (iugum)  was  some- 
times fastened  to  the  horns  in  the  present  Italian 
fashion,  by  which  all  the  draught  comes  upon  the  fore- 
head ;  but  more  often  rested,  as  with  us,  upon  the  neck ; 
but  in  place  of  a  closed  wooden  bow,  leathern  thongs 
{lor a)  were  tied  around  the  neck.  Neither  oxen  nor 
horses  were  shod,  as  we  understand  the  term,  but  they 
often  wore  a  sort  of  leathern  boot  {soled),  which  was 
strengthened  upon  its  sole  by  strips  of  metal.  This 
fashion  seems  to  have  been  later  than  Cato,  who  rec- 
ommends protecting  their  hoofs  against  cracking,  on 
long  journeys  over  the  paved  high-roads,  by  daubing 
them  with  pitch. 

In  many  parts  of  Italy  the  climate  was  genial  enough 
to  afford  fresh  fodder  all  the  year  round ;  in  which  case 


i 


In  England,  hunters  are  often  given  beer  after  a  hard  run. 


2  See  Tables. 


112 


THE   PRIVATE   LIFE   OF   THE   ROMANS. 


a  farmer  was  advised  to  double  the  number  of  his  yokes 
of  oxen  and  work  and  pasture  on  alternate  days.  When 
stable-fed,  the  oxen  received  hay,  straw,  barley,  and  other 
grain.  But  besides  these  staple  articles,  many  others 
figure  in  their  diet,  such  as  beans  and  acorns,  the  refuse 
of  the  vintage,  and  the  freshly  plucked  leaves  of  many 
trees. 

A  hundred  was  considered  the  extreme  limit  in  num- 
ber of  a  herd  of  cows,  and  these  were  chiefly  kept  for 
breeding;  for  it  must  be  remembered  that  butter  was 
unknown  to  the  Romans,  though  cheese  was  a  common 
article  of  food. 

Very  singular  and  sometimes  very  unpleasant  remedies 
are  recommended  by  the  Roman  authorities  for  the 
various  diseases  to  which  neat  flesh  is  liable.  The 
following  is  declared  by  Cato  1  to  be  an  almost  universal 
panacea :  "  a  raw  egg  swallowed  whole,  to  be  followed 
next  morning  by  an  onion  bruised  in  a  half-pint  of  wine. 
Let  a  fasting  man  see  that  the  ox  drinks  this  fasting, 

and  let  both  man   and 
i    3    ,i  —H-J      beast  stand  while  it  is 
being  swallowed." 

The  bubilia  were  re- 
quired to  have  a  south- 
ern exposure  for  warmth 
in  winter,  and  a  shady 
yard  adjoining,  where 
the  cattle  might  be 
turned  out  in  summer. 
Many  of  the  same  general  prescriptions  held  good  for  the 
equilia,  or  stables  for  horses  and  mules ;  but  these  were 

1  De  Re  Rus.  lxxi. 


Equile,  stable  (Rich). 


AGRICULTURE.  113 

also  provided  with  separate  cribs  fitted  with  racks,  and 
though  single  stalls  seem  to  have  been  unknown,  it 
was  customary  to  divide  the  horses  by  a  swinging  pole 
called  the  longurius,  which  prevented  their  interfering 
with  one  another.  The  breeds  of  horses  were  innumer- 
able, some  being  preferred  for  one  purpose  and  some  for 
another. 

Race-horses  commanded  the  highest  prices,  choice 
mules  the  next,  then  ordinary  animals,  whether  intended 
for  carriage,  saddle,  or  draught.  These  last  might  be 
broken  in  at  two  years  old ;  but  the  race-horses  waited 
another  year,  and  nearly  as  much  more  time  was  spent  in 
their  training,  so  that  they  were  four  when  they  went 
upon  the  track.  Horses  were  carefully  cleaned  and  rubbed 
down  each  day  ;  but  it  seems  to  have  been  thought  nec- 
essary to  give  them  bedding  only  if  their  stable  had  a 
stone  floor.  Columella  says,  however,1  that  oak-wood  is 
much  better. 

The  high  feeding  of  horses  is  insisted  upon;  also  broad 
meadow-lands,  where  the  grass  is  short  and  sweet,  and 
the  water-supply  unfailing,  are  recommended  for  their 
pasturage.  The  Romans,  like  ourselves,  judged  of  a 
horse's  age  chiefly  by  his  teeth,  and  their  knowledge  of 
his  anatomy  was  surprisingly  accurate ;  but  the  medica- 
ments with  which  he  was  treated  when  out  of  condition 
show  a  very  elementary  stage  of  equine  pathology. 

Asses  were  much  used  upon  a  Roman  farm  ;  for,  besides 
serving  as  beasts  of  burden,  — and,  if  fitted  with  a  pair 
of  paniers,  they  can  carry  a  surprisingly  heavy  load,  — 
they  were  also  used  for  light  ploughing,  to  turn  the  mill, 
and  to  raise  water  from  the  wells.     Black  or  spotted 

1  Re  Rus.  vi.  30. 


114  THE   PRIVATE   LIFE   OF   THE   ROMANS. 

asses  were  preferred  to  mouse-colored,  merely  because 
they  were  more  rarely  found. 

Nothing  could  be  more  generally  useful  upon  a  Roman 
farm  than  a  flock  of  sheep.  Lamb  and  mutton,  it  is 
true,  appeared  only  upon  the  tables  of  the  rich,  but  the 
milk  of  ewes,  and  the  cheese  made  from  it,  were  im- 
portant articles  of  diet,  and  their  fleece  furnished  the 
clothing  of  the  family.  White  was  the  color  preferred, 
though  certain  breeds  of  black  and  brown  found  some 
favor,  and  fancy  breeds  of  various  colors,  notably  a 
reddish  yellow,  from  Baetica  in  Spain,  were  raised  as 
curiosities.  Sheep  were  also  broadly  divided  into  two 
classes,  soft  and  harsh  fleeced,  of  which  the  former  were 
more  delicate,  and  their  wool  more  valuable.  Out  of 
many  breeds,  the  farmer  is  recommended  to  choose  that 
which  may  best  suit  the  pasturage  at  his  disposal, 
and  to  be  careful  that  the  stock  is  pure,  for  the  one 
perfectly  worthless  fleece  was  grizzled  or  spotted.  So, 
in  a  white  flock,  lambs  were  to  be  rejected,  not  only  if 
they  had  any  spots  of  dark  color  on  fleece  or  skin,  but  if 
their  tongue  and  palate  were  black  —  an  infallible  sign 
of  mixed  breed. 

Sheep  were  turned  out  to  pasture  during  some  part  of 
the  day,  nearly  all  the  year  round,  the  morning  and 
evening  frost  being  avoided  in  winter,  and  the  mid-day 
heat  in  summer.  For  the  same  reason,  though  the 
sheep-fold  (ovile)  was  built  low  and  narrow  to  protect 
the  flock  in  winter,  it  had  always  a  large  and  shady 
yard  adjoining,  where  they  could  be  turned  out  in  sum- 
mer. The  fine-wooled  sheep,  as  those  of  Tarentnm,  were 
chiefly  fed  indoors,  while  the  reverse  was  true  of  the 
coarser  breeds ;    but  the   shepherd  is  warned   that   his 


AGRICULTURE.  115 

wards  must  never  under  any  circumstances  go  hungry, 
and  also  that  they  will  soon  weary  of  any  kind  of  food 
and  fall  seriously  ill  unless  they  have  an  abundance  of 
salt.  If  the  sheep  were  to  browse,  the  pasturage  must 
be  free  from  those  thorny  brambles  which  were  so  injuri- 
ous both  to  the  fleece  of  the  animal  and  to  its  skin  when 
freshly  sheared.  The  shepherd  is  also  to  keep  a  sharp 
lookout  for  snakes.  Virgil  recommends  smoking  them 
out  of  their  holes  by  fires  of  cedar  and  other  aromatic 
woods,  but  Columella  considers  it  a  more  efficient  pre- 
caution frequently  to  burn  women's  hair  or  stag's  horn 
in  and  about  the  fold. 

The  Romans  sheared  their  sheep,  as  we  do,  in  the 
spring;  but  they  preferred  that  lambing-time  should 
come  in  the  autumn,  winter  being  considered  a  less  dan- 
gerous season  than  summer  for  young  flocks.  A  thou- 
sand head  of  sheep  might  be  folded  together  with  safety, 
but  a  shepherd  was  allotted  to  every  hundred,  and  each 
shepherd  seems  to  have  been  accompanied  by  a  dog. 
These  dogs  were  apparently  the  direct  ancestors  of  those 
who  guard  the  flocks  upon  the  Roman  Campagna  to-day, 
and  no  one  who  has  made  the  acquaintance  of  the  latter 
can  read  without  a  grim  smile  the  following  suggestion 
of  Columella : 1  "  The  shepherd  prefers  to  have  his  dog 
white,  as  this  color  contrasts  with  that  of  wild  beasts. 
And  it  is  important  to  have  some  such  broad  distinction, 
or  else  when  he  is  driving  off  the  wolves  in  the  dim  light 
of  dawn,  he  is  likely  to  hit  the  dog  instead  of  the  beast." 
It  may  be  noticed  that  docking  a  dog's  tail  was  supposed 
to  be  a  preventive  of  hydrophobia. 

The  shepherds  and  goat-herds  also  set  up  temporary 

i  Re  Rus.  vii.  12. 


116  THE   PRIVATE   LIFE   OF   THE   ROMANS. 

huts  of  conical  shape  (casulae)  for  shelter,  as  their 
successors  do  to-day  ;  but  one  object  now  aimed  at,  that 
of  raising  themselves  sufficiently  from  the  surface  of  the 
ground  to  be  out  of  the  reach  of  the  malarious  fogs 
which  only  rise  a  few  feet  above  the  Campagna  soil,  did 
not  exist  when  the  region  was  generally  and  very  effi- 
ciently drained. 

Next  in  importance  to  the  sheep  came  the  black-coated, 
silky  goats,  from  whose  hair  ropes  were  woven,  and  a 
fabric  cheaper  and  coarser  than  cloths  manufactured 
from  sheep's  wool,  but  to  a  certain  extent  water-proof. 
They  were  less  delicate,  too,  than  sheep  and  could  be 
pastured  on  rougher  ground,  and  it  was  probably  for  this 
reason  that  a  goat-herd  had  charge  of  only  half  as  many 
animals  as  a  shepherd.  He  was  to  be  a  sturdy  man, 
with  a  quick  eye  and  a  sure  foot,  for  his  flock  had  to  be 
led,  not  driven,  by  him,  as  was  the  case  with  most  other 
creatures.  Cheese  was  made  from  the  milk  of  goats  as 
well  as  from  that  of  ewes  and  cows,  and  there  were 
several  varieties,  from  the  simple  curd  for  immediate 
use,  to  one  which  would  keep  indefinitely  and  even  bear 
transportation  over  sea.  Cheeses  made  from  ewes'  milk 
were  considered  more  digestible  though  less  palatable 
than  those  made  from  cows'  milk,  while  the  reverse  was 
supposed  to  be  the  case  with  goats'-milk  cheeses. 

Black-haired  pigs  were  insisted  upon  for  cold  districts ; 
but  if  the  climate  were  mild,  the  more  tender  white 
breeds  might  be  raised.  Each  sow  was  given  a  separate 
pen  opening  on  a  central  yard,  where  there  was  a  tank 
of  water,  but  this  opening  had  a  barrier  so  high  that 
while  the  sow  could  get  over  it,  her  pigs  could  not.  They 
were  driven  to  woodland  pasture  nearly  all  the  year,  and 


AGRICULTURE.  117 

even  when  kept  in,  acorns  were  still  the  chief  article  of 
their  diet,  though  beans  were  also  given  them.  They 
were  thought  fit  for  sacrifice  when  ten  days  old  (whence 
sacer  was  the  name  of  a  ten-days-old  pig  among  the 
early  Romans)  ;  and  if  there  were  a  market-town  near 
by,  it  was  considered  most  profitable  to  sell  them  as 
sucking  pigs.  Hogs  were  also  fattened  for  the  sale,  and 
Varro  mentions  with  admiration  that  they  were  some- 
times made  too  fat  to  stand  upon  their  feet. 

So  far,  the  arrangements  of  the  farm  show  merely  a 
legitimate  development  from  the  early  Roman  methods ; 
but  when  we  come  to  its  feathered  denizens,  we  perceive 
at  once  the  overweening  influence  of  Greek  fashion. 
Greek  names,  in  their  original  form,  or  barely  Latinized, 
are  continually  employed,  while  the  Romans  quite  vaunt 
themselves  on  having  stood  out  against  the  Grecian 
practice  of  cock-fighting.  The  game-cock  was,  however, 
the  favorite  breed  in  Italy  as  well  as  in  Greece.  Two 
hundred  hens  were  considered  a  fair  number  for  a  flock, 
and  one  man,  with  a  child's  help,  could  take  care  of  so 
many.  The  following  was  the  most  approved  way  of 
housing  them.  The  central  hen-coop  (galUnarium),  seven 
Roman  feet  on  each  of  its  three  dimensions,  was  flanked 
on  either  side  by  a  wing  of  the  same  breadth,  twelve  feet 
high  and  twelve  feet  long,  divided  into  two  stories  by  a 
flooring  seven  feet  from  the  ground.  These  wings  had 
no  outer  door,  but  communicated  through  the  central 
coop,  which  opened  on  the  court-yard,  where  the  fowls 
were  turned  out,  to  scratch  and  feed  through  the  day. 
The  walls  were  pierced  with  windows,  which  were, 
however,  securely  barred  against  the  incursions  of  evil 
beasts.     Two  fashions  of  providing  the  hens  with  nests 


118  THE   PRIVATE   LIFE   OF   THE   ROMANS. 

obtained :  the  first  was  to  hang  osier  baskets  along  the 
walls ;  the  other,  and  more  approved  method,  was  to 
build  these  walls  so  thick  that  rows  of  nests  could  be 
hollowed  out  of  them,  like  the  niches  in  a  columbarium. 
In  either  case,  a  vestibulum,  or  perch,  was  provided  before 
each  nest,  so  that  the  hens  might  not  break  their  eggs 
by  flying  straight  upon  them.  Notched  stakes  served 
them  for  stairways  to  the  upper  stories  of  the  wings, 
and  the  whole  coop,  like  all  aviaria,  was  to  be  coated 
within  and  without  with  highly  polished  cement,  as  a 
precaution  against  cats  and  snakes. 

Cleanliness  was  greatly  insisted  on,  as  well  here  as 
in  the  more  elaborate  geese  and  duck  yards  (chenoboscid 
and  nessotrophia) .  Hens  were  fed  upon  various  kinds  of 
dough,  and  their  water-dishes  were  fitted  with  covers 
pierced  with  holes  large  enough  to  allow  the  head  to 
pass  easily  through,  whereby,  also,  the  water  was  kept 
clean. 

The  dove-cote  {columbarium)  was  arranged  on  the  same 
general  principles,  except  that  it  was  constructed  high 
above  the  ground,  and  the  purchase  of  white  pigeons  as 
well  as  that  of  white  hens  was  discouraged  because  of 
their  being  conspicuous  objects  to  birds  of  prey.  Pigeons 
certainly  commanded  fancy  prices,  duceni  nummi  (about 
nine  dollars)  being  thought  a  fair  amount  for  a  pair  of 
perfect  birds  even  in  Yarro's  time,  while  five  times  this 
amount  was  not  uncommon. 

Thrushes  (turdl)  were  caught  and  fattened  for  the 
markets,  as  were  also  blackbirds  (merulae),  ortolans 
(mlliariae),  quails  (coturnlces),  and  other  wild  fowl. 
This  class  of  winged  creature  was  all  housed  together, 
often  to  the  number  of  several  thousand.     The  ornlthon, 


AGRICULTURE.  119 

as  their  place  of  confinement  was  called,  was  often  built 
along  a  covered  walk,  and  separated  from  it  only  by  a 
netting,  so  that  the  owner  might  admire  his  treasures  as 
he  took  his  daily  exercise ;  but  this  is  not  recommended 
by  all  authorities,  some  being  of  opinion  that  the  spirits 
of  free-born  birds  were  depressed  in  captivity  by  the 
sight  of  vegetation. 

Peacocks  also  (pavones)  were  kept  for  show  from 
early  times,  but  after  Quintus  Hortensius  had  set  the 
fashion  of  eating  them,  their  cultivation  became  one  of 
the  most  profitable  industries  of  the  Roman  farmer ;  for 
their  eggs  fetched  ten  dollars  a  dozen,  and  the  birds 
themselves  seventeen  dollars  a  pair.  Their  coops  and 
feeding-ground  were  usually,  however,  at  a  considerable 
distance  from  the  farm-yard. 

This  was  also  the  case  with  water-fowl,  for  whose 
well-being  the  most  elaborate  arrangements  were  made. 
They  had  great  yards  set  apart  for  them,  surrounded  by 
high  and  smoothly  polished  walls,  and  covered  by  a 
strong  netting.  In  the  yard  was  a  pond,  fed  by  running 
water,  supplied  with  gently  sloping  verges,  and  planted 
with  all  the  most  palatable  water-weeds,  while  around  its 
grassy  brim,  nests  were  built,  separated  from  each  other 
by  box-hedges  and  furnished  with  troughs  for  the  daily 
supply  of  grain. 

In  the  luxurious  days  of  Rome,  fish  and  wild  animals 
were  preserved  even  on  comparatively  modest  estates, 
and  a  snail-yard  was  rarely  absent. 

Bee-culture  received  great  attention  from  the  Romans, 
in  whose  diet  honey  took  the  place  of  sugar.  The  super- 
lative excellence  of  pot-herbs,  and  above  all  thyme,  for 
flavoring  honey,  was  insisted  on  by  all  writers,  but  no 


120 


THE   PRIVATE   LIFE   OF   THE   ROMANS. 


one  has  described  this  branch  of  agriculture  so  charm- 
ingly as  Virgil. 

To  return  to  the  court-yard  and  the  buildings  about 
it.  There  were  sheds  for  the  housing  of  unthreshed 
grain  and  unpressed  olives,  granaries  and  storerooms 
for  fruit,  wine,  and  oil.  Fodder  was  more  often  stacked 
than  housed,  but  farm-implements  were  kept  under  cover, 
and  the  more  portable  of  them  under  lock  and  key.  In 
small  tools  the  farmer  of  those  days  was  perhaps  defi- 
cient, but  for  working  the  land  his  means  were  abundant. 
The  long  prevalence  of  hand  labor  probably  accounted 
for  the  astonishing  variety  of  spades,  mattocks,  and  rakes, 
for  whose  Latin  names  it  is  not  always  easy 
to  find  exact  English  equivalents.  The  ru- 
trum,  the  weapon  with  which  Remus  was 
killed,  was  a  kind  of  shovel.  They  had  a 
sort  of  spade  called  the  pdla,  both  with  iron 
and  wooden  blade,  and  this  imple- 
ment was  sometimes  made  with  a 
cross-bar  for  the  foot  to  rest  on.  The  latter 
tool  is  called  in  Italian  vanga,  a  name  which  is 
also  found  in  late  Latin.  For  digging,  spading 
over  the  land,  breaking  up  fresh  soil,  etc.,  the 
Romans  used  tools  of  the  nature  of  the  mat- 
tock, which,  while  they  did  the  work  of  a  spade, 
were  handled  like  a  hoe.  Under  this  head 
came  the  ligo  (also  used  as  a  hatchet)  ;  the 
bidens,  with  blade  notched  into  two  teeth ;  the 
capreolus,  where  these  two  teeth  were  curved 
inward  like  a  goat's  horns,  and  the  raster, 
which  looks  like  a  horseshoe  tied  to  a  handle.  These 
were  all  heavy  enough  to  do  the  work  of  the  plough, 


Rutrum  (Rich). 


Bidens  (Rich). 


AGRICULTURE.  121 

and  were  indeed  thought  to  break  up  the  ground  more 
efficiently. 

The  names  of  ditcher  and  ditching  (fossor  and  fossio), 
given  to  the  man  who  thus  dug  over  the  ground  and  to 
the  work  which  he  performed,  shows  that  the  earth  must 
have  been  thrown  in  successive  cuts  from  one  side  to  the 
other  of  a  perpetual  trench,  and  there  was  a  clever  little 
machine,  the  ciconia,  for  testing  the  faithfulness  of  the 
labor  and  making  sure  that  this  trench  was  kept  straight 
and  of  unvarying  depth  and  width. 

Of  lighter  weight  than  the  tools  already  mentioned 
were  the  marra,  with  broad,  notched  blade,  and  the 
sarculum  and  ascici,  which  nearly  corresponded  to  a 
long  and  short  handled  hoe.  The  raster  was  also  found 
with  several  teeth,  and  its  diminutive,  rastellum,  was 
a  wooden  rake  ;  the  pecten  was  yet  another  rake,  perhaps 
of  iron. 

Falx  is  the  general  name  for  scythe,  sickle, 

hedge-bill,  or  other  agricultural  implement  of 

like  nature.     Most  curious  of  all  was  the  falx 

vinitoria,  the  vine-dresser's  pruning-hook,  with 

its  many  edges.     Columella1  gives 

an  elaborate  description  of  this  tool, 

which  would  very  well  describe  the 

more   elaborate   of    English   hedge- 


bills.     The  falx  denticulata  must  also 

(Rich). 


Falx  vinitoria 

be  noted,  a  sickle  with  saw-toothed 

cuMmch)  blade,    f°r   cutting    the    grain   just   below    the 

ear,  a  practice  recommended  as  facilitating  its 

threshing.     The  Romans  had   both  a  two-pronged    iron 

fork   (furca)   and  a  wooden  one  with  many  teeth,  used 

1  De  Re  Rus.  iv.  25. 


1  <?9 


THE    PRIVATE   LIFE    OF   THE    ROMANS. 


Arator  (Rich). 


for  tossing  the  straw  lightly  about  the  threshing-floor, 
that  the  wind  might  detach  the  chaff,  and  hence  called 
ventildbrum. 

Leaving  the  hand-tools  we  pass  to  those  which  had  to 
be  worked  by  cattle.  Of  these,  the  most  important  was, 
of  course,  the  ardtrum,  or  plough.     In  its  primitive  form 

it  was  made  entirely  of 
wood.  A  stout-branched 
sapling  was  chosen,  with 
a  sharp  curve,  one  end  was 
pointed  for  the  vomer,  or 
share,  while  the  other  end 
was  left  long  enough  to 
serve  as  a  pole  (temo)  for 
the  oxen ;  at  the  point  of 
junction  (buris)  between  temo  and  vomer,  a  handle  (stiva) 
was  inserted,  which  the  ploughman  (arator)  held  in 
guiding.  A  plough  hardly  more  elaborate  than  the  one 
here  described  is  still  used 
in  the  wilder  and  remoter 
parts  of  Italy.  Virgil's 
plough1  is  certainly  a 
slight  advance  on  this, 
and  in  later  Imperial 
times    the    Romans    had 

ploughs  with  nearly  every  feature  of  our  own,  though 
ruder  in  construction.  They  had  ploughs  with  coulters 
and  without,  ploughs  both  with  and  without  wheels, 
ploughs  with  no  mould-board,  with  one,  and  with  two, 
some  with  broad  shares,  and  some  with  narrow,  to  suit 
the   nature  of  the   soil,   and  their  two-fold   service   of 

1  Virg.  Geor.  i.  169-175. 


Aratrum  (Rich). 


AGRICULTURE.  123 

breaking  ground  and  ploughing  in  seed.  It  appears 
clear,  however,  that  the  plough  in  common  use  could 
not  turn  over  a  furrow  when  held  in  an  upright  po- 
sition, but  must  be  guided  a  little  obliquely,  that  the 
weight  of  the  beam  might  bear  on  the  freshly  cut 
earth.  This  process  made  a  sloping  narrow  furrow, 
and  in  order  thoroughly  to  work  the  ground,  good 
farmers  commonly  turned  back  (as  the  double  face  of 
their  share  permitted)  lik!  ploughed  a  full,  upright  fur- 
row in  the  same  line.  The  necessity  for  going  twice 
over  the  ground  made  the  advantages  of  the  aratrum 
over  the  bidens  much  less  than  those  of  the  plough  over 
the  spade.  A  bas-relief  found  in  the  island  of  Magnesia 
shows  one  of  the  ploughs  which  were  adapted  for  cover- 
ing in  the  seed,  and  making  a  channel  for  water  between 
the  ridges,  an  instrument  which  was  in  constant  use  in 
the  palmy  days  of  agriculture  about  Rome.  The  plough 
here  depicted  has  for  share-beam  (dentate)  a  narrow 
plank  some  four  feet  long,  shod  at  its  forward  end  with 
an  iron  share  (vomer),  which  extends  above  and  below 
the  beam,  like  an  arrow-head  on  its  staff.  To  the  sides 
of  the  dentate,  directly  behind  the  share,  are  fastened 
the  double  mould-boards  (aures),  which  turned  up  a  ridge 
on  either  side  of  the  line  drawn  by  the  passage  of  the 
plough.  Behind  the  mould-boards  comes  the  curving 
pole  (temo),  supported  by  a  truss,  and  at  the  extreme 
end  the  single  guiding  handle  (stlva). 

The  Roman  irpex  was  a  plank  set  with  teeth  and  drawn 
by  oxen  over  the  ground.  Its  use  was  not  that  of  our 
harrow  (the  work  of  which  was  usually  done  by  hand), 
but  to  clear  the  ground  of  small  roots ;  so,  though  this  is 
not  expressly  stated,  its  teeth  were  probably  set  at  an 


124 


THE   PRIVATE   LIEE   OF   THE    ROMANS. 


angle.  A  species  of  brush-harrow  called  crates  was,  how- 
ever, employed.  The  tribulum  was  a  platform  studded 
with  nails,  drawn  over  the  grain  upon  the  threshing-floor 
to  open  the  ears.  Unyoked  cattle  were  sometimes  driven 
about  over  the  threshing-floor  for  the  same  purpose,  and 
flails  (perticae)  also  were  used  (these  were  merely  long, 
pliable  rods),  especially  when  the  grain  had  been  reaped 
just  below  the  ear,  and  was,  therefore,  almost  free  of 
straw. 

The  proper  mode  of  preparing  the  threshing-floor  is  de- 
scribed by  all  the  authorities,  but  nowhere  more  clearly 
than  by  Virgil  in  the  first  Georgic. 

The  rooms  containing  the  oil  and  wine  presses  also 
opened  on  the  central  court-yard.  To  the  harvest  of  two 
hundred  and  forty  iugera  of  olive-orchards,  Cato  assigns 
three  mills,  one  worked  by  a  donkey,  one  by  hand,  and 
one  so-called  Spanish  mill;  but  his  estimates  are  con- 
fessedly made  with  a  wide  margin  for  accidents.  These 
mills,  which  all  bore  the  same  name  (molae),  as  those  used 
for  grinding  grain,  were  probably  very  like  the  latter  in 
construction.  The  lower  stone  (meta)  was  immovable ; 
the  upper  (catillus)  turned  about  it  exactly  as  in  the 

former  case  ;  and  by  this 
means  the  fleshy  part  of 
the  berry  was  detached 
from  the  stone  and 
bruised,  while  the  latter 
was  left  intact.  The 
trapetum  was  a  more 
elaborate  machine  for 
performing  the  same  office,  and  to  these  two  Columella 
gives  the  preference  over  all  other  mills.     When  cleared 


Trapetum  (Rich). 


AGRICULTURE.  125 

of  stones,  the  pulp  was  put  under  the  press  (torcular), 
which  consisted  merely  of  boards  forced  down  by  a 
press-beam  {prelum),  working  like  a  long-armed  lever. 
In  the  time  of  Pliny,  this  was  replaced  by  the  much 
more  compact  and  effective  screw-press.  The  juice  ex- 
pressed by  the  torcular  was  guided  by  the  slope  of  the 
floor  into  one  or  more  earthen  jars  sunk  below  its  level, 
and  from  these  the  permanent  receptacles  were  filled. 
The  construction  and  working  of  the  wine-press  was  very 
similar,  if  indeed  the  same  machine  were  not  used  for 
both  fruits. 

That  the  Romans  had  a  great  many  species  of  grain  ap- 
pears from  the  long  catalogue  of  names  furnished  by 
the  writers  on  agriculture,  but  it  is  no  longer  easy  to 
determine  the  exact  nature  of  all  these  varieties.  Both 
autumn  and  spring  sowing  were  practised,  as  with  us, 
though  the  former  was  preferred.  About  a  bushel  of 
wheat  (triticum)  was  used  to  a  iugerum,  and  this  amount 
of  land  required  four  days'  ploughing  with  oxen,  one  of 
harrowing,  two  days  for  the  first  hoeing,  one  for  the 
second,  one  for  weeding,  and  one  and  a  half  for  harvest- 
ing. In  this  estimate  the  sowing  is  plainly  included 
under  the  head  of  ploughing.  The  ground  was  ploughed 
three  times;  the  first  broke  up  the  earth,  the  second 
cross-ploughed  it,  the  third  traced  the  drills  in  which  the 
seed  was  sown  by  hand  and  harrowed 1  in.  The  first 
hoeing  (sarrltio)  banked  up  the  earth  about  the  young 
grain  and  cleared  it  of  weeds;  the  weeding  (runcatio) 
consisted  in  lopping  with  a  sickle  the  tops  of  the  weeds, 
their  roots  not  being  disturbed.  The  cultivation  of  all 
grains  followed  these  general  lines. 

2The  occatio  or  harrowing  was  performed  either  by  the  crates  or 
by  the  rdstrum. 


126  THE   PRIVATE   LIFE   OF   THE   ROMANS. 

Pulse  formed  an  essential  article  of  food  both,  for  man 
and  beast,  and  ranked  next  in  importance  to  the  grains. 
The  faba,  the  most  useful  kind  of  pulse,  was  evidently 
some  variety  of  bean.  It  was  often  sown  without  any 
intermediate  ploughing  on  land  from  which  grain  had 
been  harvested,  the  seed  being  dropped  apparently  into 
the  furrow  between  the  ridges  of  stubble,  which  were 
then  turned  over  upon  it  by  the  plough.  When  the 
beans  were  three  inches  high,  they  were  banked  up  with 
the  hoe,  or  else  the  board  plough  already  described  was 
run  through  between  the  rows,  and  afterwards  they  were 
two  or  three  times  cleared  of  weeds  by  the  hoe  —  and 
this  was  the  general  manner  of  cultivating  the  other 
varieties  of  pulse. 

The  value  of  turnips  (rapa)  as  food  for  cattle  and 
sheep  was  perfectly  understood,  and  they  were  exten- 
sively raised. 

A  few  words  may  here  be  given  to  the  subject  of  rota- 
tion of  crops  as  it  was  practised  by  the  Eoman  farmer. 
Some  of  the  richer  parts  of  Campania  bore  a  crop  of 
grain  every  year.  The  elder  Pliny  mentions  one  field  in 
the  fork  between  the  roads  which  diverged  from  Capua 
to  Cumas  and  Puteoli,  which  regularly  bore  spelt  (far)  for 
two  years,  then  panic  *  (panicum)  for  one,  and  so  on  in 
perpetual  rotation ;  but  this  was  a  prodigy  even  in  fertile 
Campania.  A  recurrent  succession  of  barley  (hordeum), 
millet  (milium),  and  turnips  was  more  common,  though 
this  demanded  a  rich  soil,  and  it  was  customary  to 
manure  for  the  millet  when  its  turn  came  round.  An- 
other expedient  was  alternating  spelt  and  spring  beans, 
manuring  the  latter.     Less  fertile  land  lay  fallow  every 

1  Panic,  though  exhausting,  was  a  summer  grain. 


AGRICULTURE.  127 

third  year,  common  soil  on  alternate  years,  this  being 
the  method  recommended  by  Virgil ;  and  certain  crops, 
such  as  lupine  (hqnnus),  were  sown  merely  to  be  ploughed 
in  as  a  fertilizer. 

There  was  always  a  vegetable  garden  (hortus  olitdrius) 
on  the  Roman  farm,  where  were  to  be  found  a  great 
variety  of  pot-herbs  (lierbae  pulmentariae) ,  lettuce  (lac- 
tuca),  and  other  salads,  cabbages  (brassicae)  of  many 
kinds,  leeks  (porrum)  and  onions  (caepa),  carrots 
(pastinaca)  and  turnips  (rapa),  asparagus  and  artichokes 
(carclus),  beans  {faba)  and  peas  {pisum),  cucumbers 
(cucumis)  and  melons  (melo). 

Market-gardening  was  a  nourishing  industry,  and  the 
raising  of  flowers,  notably  violets  and  roses,  provided  a 
town  were  within  easy  reach,  was  strongly  recommended. 
But  the  olive  and  the  grape  were,  after  all,  the  two  most 
characteristic  Roman  crops. 

If  ten  per  cent  was  a  fair  interest  on  money  invested 
in  a  vineyard,  as  Columella  asserts,  it  is  curious  that 
viticulture  should  have  gone  even  temporarily  out  of 
fashion,  as  it  seems  to  have  done  at  one  period  in  the 
early  days  of  the  Empire.  Then,  as  now,  the  soil  pre- 
ferred for  a  vineyard  was  gravelly,  and,  in  starting  a 
fresh  one,  new  ground  was  broken  if  possible,  or,  at  all 
events,  that  which  had  never  borne  vines  before.  That 
the  young  plants  should  be  of  good  stock,  was,  of  course, 
the  first  necessity ;  then  a  thorough  and  repeated  work- 
ing of  the  soil  was  required,  and  a  careful  cutting  back 
of  the  shoots  and  roots  of  the  vines. 

Practically,  there  were  but  two  ways  of  training  vines,  — 
on  trellises  and  on  trees.  In  the  former  case,  the  main 
stock  of  the  vine  was  trained  up  a  pole  to  the  height  of 


128  THE   PRIVATE   LIFE   OF   THE   ROMANS. 

five  or  six  feet,  where  it  was  allowed  to  branch,  and  here 
a  cross-bar  (iugum)  was  fastened  to  the  pole.  Over  this 
the  branches  were  thrown,  and  carried  back  to  the  ground, 
where  they  rooted,  and  formed  new  stock  to  replenish 
the  vineyard.  Among  trees  to  which  the  vine  might  be 
trained,  the  elm  was  preferred,  and  Virgil  announces  in 
the  very  opening  of  the  Georgics,  that  an  important  part 
of  his  pleasing  task  will  be  to  describe  the  art  of  "  marry- 
ing the  vine  to  the  elm." 

Its  leaves,  which  had  to  be  plucked  in  order  to  give 
sunshine  to  the  grapes,  were  an  excellent  food  for  cattle ; 
it  grew  easily  in  most  soils,  and  could  be  severely 
trimmed  without  diminishing  its  vitality.  When  a  tree 
was  intended  as  the  support  of  a  vine,  its  trunk  was 
kept  smooth  for  eight  feet  above  the  ground.  Three 
equidistant  branches  were  then  left,  and  the  same  num- 
ber was  allowed  to  grow,  at  intervals  of  three  feet,  to 
the  top  of  the  tree,  care  being  always  taken  that  the 
members  of  the  successive  layers  should  not  come 
directly  above  one  another. 

The  vines  were  set  at  varying  distances  apart,  accord- 
ing to  the  quality  of  the  soil,  the  nature  of  the  climate, 
and  the  mode  in  which  they  were  to  be  trained.  Colu- 
mella says *  that  nobody  can  help  getting  a  culleus 2  of 
wine  from  a  iugerum;  but  in  all  cases  the  soil  is  required 
to  be  incessantly  worked.  From  spring  to  winter  the 
ground  was  spaded  over  at  least  once  a  month.  One  man 
was  supposed  equal  to  the  care  of  seven  iugera,  and  the 
fettered  slaves  appear  to  have  been  often  appointed  to 
this  task.  At  the  vintage,  of  course,  extra  labor  was 
called  in.      On  the  nineteenth  of   August,  the   Vinalia 

i  De  Re  Rus.  iii.  3.  2  See  Table. 


AGRICULTURE.  129 

Rustica,  sacrifices  were  offered  to  Jupiter,  and  the  fiamen 
dialis,  with  much  solemnity,  broke  a  bunch  of  grapes  from 
a  vine-branch,  and  declared  the  vintage  begun.  Prac- 
tically, however,  grapes  appear  to  have  been  gathered 
as  they  ripened,  without  much  regard  to  this-  festival ; 
only  no  new  wine  might  be  taken  into  the  city  until 
after  it  had  occurred. 

Long  before  the  grapes  were  gathered,  the  vintner  must 
see  that  all  the  utensils  were  ready  for  the  wine-making, 
cleanly  washed  and  rinsed  in  salted,  or,  better  still,  in 
sea-water,  while  vessels  of  clay  were,  if  necessary, 
daubed  inside  with  pitch  to  render  them  impervious. 

The  grapes  were  first  trodden  by  the  feet,  then  twice 
pressed,  and  the  final  refuse,  mixed  with  water,  formed 
the  beverage  called  lora,  which  was  the  winter  drink  of 
the  slaves.  If  the  must  were  to  be  kept  sweet,  jars  were 
filled  with  it,  tightly  covered,  then  sunk  in  sand  or  water 
for  a  month  or  six  weeks,  after  which  it  was  warranted 
to  remain  unaltered  in  taste  for  a  year  at  least.  Much 
of  the  must  was  boiled  down  into  a  jelly  used  for  flavor- 
ing and  preserving  poor  wines.  This  boiling  down  was 
a  most  delicate  operation.  It  was  done  by  night  in  a 
great  leaden  vessel  (brass  and  copper  were  thought  to 
impart  an  unpleasant  flavor),  over  a  fire,  slow  at  first,  and 
then  brisker,  the  liquid  being  constantly  stirred  to  pre- 
vent burning,  and  carefully  skimmed  of  all  impurities. 
The  resultant  jelly  received  different  names,  defrutum, 
sapcbj1  etc.,  according  to  the  proportion  of  the  original 
must  which  had  been  boiled  away. 

The  rest  of  the  must  was  taken  to  the  wine-cellar 
(cella  vinaria)  and  put  into  the  dolia,  huge  earthen  jars 

1  Whence  the  Italian  scqxi  and  French  sabe. 


130 


THE   PRIVATE   LIFE   OF   THE   ROMANS. 


Dolium  (Rich). 


holding  rather  more  than  a  hundred  gallons.  Here  the 
must  was  allowed  to  ferment,  and  here  it  was  doctored 
with  the  various  ingredients  used  to  flavor  and  preserve 

it.  The  chief  of  these  were  boiled-down 
must  (defrutum,  etc.),  sea-water  which  had 
been  bottled,  and  kept  a  number  of  years, 
lime,  turpentine,  and  pitch.  Aromatie 
herbs  and  spices  were  also,  sometimes 
employed. 

The  cella  vlnaria  was  constructed  with 
a  dry  earthen  bed,  and  if  the  wine  were 
weak,  the  dolia  were  sunk  deeply  in  the  earth.  Fer- 
mentation required  about  nine  days,  after  which  the  dolia 
were  tightly  covered  and  only  looked  at  from  time  to 
time. 

The  common  wines 
were  drunk  directly 
from  the  dolia,  and 
from  these  were  also 
filled  the  ox-  and  goat- 
skins in  which  wine  was 
transported  to  a  distance. 
Finer  wines  were  always 
bottled  off  in  amphorae, 
with  all  sorts  of  super- 
stitious precautions,  and 
stored  away,  not  as  with 
us  in  the  cellar,  but  in 
a  dry  room  at  the  top 
of  the  house  (apotheca). 
Thus  Horace  in  his  gay  ode  to  the  Amphora,1  calls  upon 

iHor.  Od.  iii.  21. 


Amphorae  (Marquard). 


AGRICULTURE.  131 

the  jar  of  choice  Massic  wine  to  come  down  from  its 
place  of  rest  and  help  him  celebrate  the  festival  of  his 
friend  Messala  Corvinus.  Sweet  wines  were  also  made 
from  sun-dried  grapes,  and  innumerable  liqueurs  of  which 
wine  formed  the  basis. 

Although  the  season  of  olive-gathering  came  earlier  in 
Roman  days  than  now  in  Italy,  oil  was  not  made  till  the 
vintage  was  well  over.  The  best  way  of  all  was  to  pick 
the  olive  by  hand,  but  where  this  was  impracticable  they 
were  gently  beaten  from  the  tree  with  osier-rods. 
(  From  the  pulp  of  the  olive  were  and  are  expressed  two 
liquids,  —  oil  proper,  and  that  thin,  watery  fluid,  dark 
and  bitter,  which  was  called  amurca  by  the  Eomans,  and 
used  "by  them  as  manure.  This  came  away  from  the 
olive  with  much  less  pressure  than  the  oil,  or  else  it 
oozed  from  the  berry  after  it  was  gathered ;  and  many 
farmers  left  the  olives  spread  out  upon  a  dry,  sloping 
floor,  for  two  or  three  days  before  they  were  pressed,  on 
purpose  to  allow  the  amurca  to  run  away  and  a  slight 
fermentation  to  take  place.  Others  considered  this  prac- 
tice most  injurious  to  the  fruit.  In  any  case  the  berries 
were  carefully  picked  over,  and  each  day's  harvest  not 
only  cleaned  by  itself,  but  kept  distinct  during  all  the 
processes  of  oil-making.  In  general,  the  gentler  the  pres- 
sure to  which  the  olive-pulp  was  subjected,  the  better  the 
resultant  oil,  which  was  roughly  divided  into  three  grades. 
It  was  cleared  of  amurca  by  being  poured  from  one  pan 
to  another,  often  to  the  number  of  thirty,  after  having 
been  allowed  to  stand  for  a  while  and  settle  in  each.  In 
very  cold  weather,  when  the  oil  and  amurca  could  not  be 
separated  in  this  way,  a  little  salt  or  nitre  was  mixed 
with  the  liquid.     "When  thoroughly  clarified,  the  oil  was 


132  THE   PKIVATE   LIFE   OF   THE   ROMANS. 

put  into  dolia  and  tightly  corked.  Throughout  its 
making  the  oil  must  have  been  carefully  protected  from 
the  touch  of  smoke,  which  was  thought  as  deleterious  in 
this  case  as  desirable  for  new-made  wine. 

Olives  were  also  pickled  and  preserved  in  a  variety  of 
ways  ;  and  since  the  olive-tree  commonly  bore  only  every 
other  year,  it  was  customary  to  have  two  orchards  fur- 
nishing alternate  harvests.  Once  fairly  started,  an  olive 
orchard  demanded  comparatively  little  labor  ;  the  ground 
about  the  trees  was  annually  dug  or  ploughed,  the 
suckers  trimmed,  and  the  roots  cut  back  ;  but  the  trees 
were  manured  only  every  third  year,  and  their  branches 
trimmed  once  in  eight  or  even  more ;  on  the  year  they 
did  not  bear,  some  other  crop  was  raised  between  the 
trees. 

Grafting  was  a  common  practice  with  all  fruit-trees, 
the  Roman  method  being  substantially  the  same  as  our 
own. 

In  considering  the  Roman  farmer's  year  as  a  whole, 
we  find  that  he  computed  rainy  days  and  festivals  at 
forty-five,  and  reckoned  on  thirty  days  after  the  sowing 
when  there  was  no  field  labor  to  be  done.  But  on  these 
thirty  days,  and  on  the  stormy  ones,  there  were  ropes  to 
make,  baskets  to  weave,  and  other  home-made  utensils  to 
prepare ;  while  all  the  other  implements  of  the  husband- 
man—  his  "mute  servants,"  as  Varro1  calls  them  —  had 
to  be  repaired  and  thoroughly  cleaned.  Even  on  feast- 
days  certain  kinds  of  work  were  allowed,  such  as  the 
clearing  of  drains  and  the  mending  of  highways,  so  that 
only  the  December  Saturnalia  seem  to  have  afforded  a 
complete  holiday  to  the  slaves. 

1  Varr.  Re  Rus.  i.  17. 


AGRICULTURE.  133 

On  New  Year's  clay,  a  little  work  of  every  kind  was 
done  for  good  luck ;  but  then  followed  a  time  of  com- 
parative relaxation.  In  the  latter  half  of  January,  the 
ground  was  cleared  of  brambles,  and  the  trimming  of 
the  vineyards  completed ;  while  the  autumn-sown  grain 
and  the  beans,  if  they  were  sufficiently  grown,  were  hoed 
for  the  first  time.  Early  trees  were  now  grafted,  and 
the  stock  was  planted.  Vineyards  were  also  cultivated, 
and  young  orchards  set  out,  grass  sown  and  ground 
broken,  fields  manured  and  osier-beds  renewed.  Vine-sets 
were  also  transplanted,  if  needful,  and  the  late  fruit-trees 
grafted. 

In  .March,  the  vegetable  garden  was  prepared,  the 
autumn  grains  received  their  second  hoeing,  and  the 
spring  grains  were  sown.  In  April,  came  weeding, 
sheep-washing,  the  setting  out  of  new  vineyards,  the 
trimming  of  old  vines,  and  the  olive-grafting. 

May  brought  the  earliest  mowing,  and  in  this  month 
the  earth  was  first  spaded  up  about  the  olive-trees, 
and  the  vineyards  dug  over,  this  latter  process  being 
repeated  each  month  until  cold  weather.  The  olives 
were  also  trimmed,  the  vine-shoots  nipped ;  in  warmer 
latitudes  the  sheep  were  shorn,  and  the  lupins,  which 
had  been  sown  as  fertilizer,  were  ploughed  in.  In  June 
the  first  ploughing  was  finished  and  the  second  done, 
the  threshing-floor  was  made  ready,  vetches  mown,  beans 
picked,  and  honey  taken  from  the  hives. 

Grain-harvest  took  place  in  July,  and  the  cutting  of 
the  straw  and  gathering  of  leaves  for  the  winter  fodder 
of  cattle.  In  August,  figs  and  grapes  were  dried  for 
winter  use,  and  brakes  cut  for  litter. 

September  was,  par  excellence,  the  month  of  the  vint- 


134  THE   PRIVATE    LIFE    OF   THE    ROMANS. 

age,  and  then,  too,  turnips  were  planted,  and  the  later 
grains  harvested.  In  October,  winter  grains  were  sown 
and  harrowed  in,  trees  trimmed,  and  the  olive-picking 
begun. 

November  was  devoted  to  a  general  cleaning-up  of 
autumn  work.  The  making  of  oil  was  finished  in  Decem- 
ber, and  the  vines  trained,  and  we  may  close  the  brief 
resume  of  the  work  of  the  Roman  agricultural  year  by  a 
few  general  precepts  from  the  Natural  History  of  the 
elder  Pliny l :  "  He  is  no  farmer  who  buys  what  his 
estate  can  supply.  He  is  a  bad  head  of  a  household  who 
does  by  day  what  can  be  done  by  night,  —  except  in  case 
of  foul  weather ;  he  is  a  worse  who  does  on  working- 
days  what  is  permitted  on  holidays ;  the  Avorst  of  all  is 
he  who  on  a  pleasant  day  chooses  to  work  within  doors 
rather  than  in  the  field." 

1  Plin.  Nat.  Hist,  xviii.  6. 


TRAVEL.  135 


CHAPTER   VI. 

TRAVEL,   TRANSPORTATION,  AMUSEMENTS. 

When  Rome  was  at  the  summit  of  her  power, 
the  entire  extent  of  the  Empire  was  provided  with  a 
system  of  public  highways  which  rendered  communica- 
tion between  the  different  parts  of  Europe  easy  and  com- 
paratively rapid.  Three  principal  post-roads  diverged 
from  Rome,  starting  from  three  separate  gates.  From 
the  Porta  Capena,1  at  the  southeastern  angle  of  the  city 
wall,  the  Via  Appia  ran  over  the  Alban  hills,  and  across 
the  Pontine  Marshes  to  Capua,  where  it  divided.  The 
right-hand  branch  led  to  Rhegium  (Reggio),  and  thence 
by  ferry  to  Messina  and  the  principal  cities  of  Sicily,  one 
of  which,  Lilybseum  (Capo  di  Boco),  was  the  regular  port 
of  winter  departure  for  Carthage  and  Africa.  In  sum- 
mer the  direct  sea-passage  from  Ostia  was  usually  pre- 
ferred. From  Carthage,  roads  of  Roman  construction  led 
westward  and  communicated  with  Spain,  and  eastward  to 
Asia,  and  also  penetrated  for  some  distance  into  the 
interior. 

The  left-hand  road  from  Capua  went  to  Brundusium 
(Brindisi).  From  this  point,  a  twent3^-four  hours'  voyage 
brought  the  traveller  to  Dyrrachium  (Durazzo  in  European 

1  After  the  building  of  the  Aurelian  wall,  from  the  Porta  Appia, 
fifteen  hundred  yards  further  out. 


136  THE   PRIVATE   LIFE   OF   THE   ROMANS. 

Turkey),  whence  he  might  follow  the  Egnatian  Way 
through  Illyria,  Macedonia,  and  Thrace  to  Constanti- 
nople ;  while  branch  roads  led  to  other  important  points, 
and  especially  to  Athens,  and  to  Antioch,  which  was  the 
centre  of  Eastern  trade.  Brundusium  was  also  connected 
by  a  coast  road  with  Ariminum  (Rimini),  the  terminus  of 
the  Flaminian  Way. 

This  very  important  road  left  Rome  by  the  Porta 
Flaminia,  on  or  near  the  site  of  the  present  Porta  del 
Popolo,  crossed  the  Tiber  at  the  Mulvian  bridge,  where  is 
now  the  Ponte  Molle,  and  ran  northward  through  mid- 
Italy,  by  way  of  Narnia  and  Spoletum  (jSTarni  and 
Spoleto)  to  Rimini,  as  aforesaid.  From  this  point 
another  coast  road  ran  northward  to  Aquileia,  —  the 
starting-point  for  the  Danubian  provinces;  while  the 
Via  ^Emilia  turned  westerly  and  led  by  way  of  Bologna 
and  Modena  (Bononia  and  Mutina)  to  Milan  (Mediola- 
num).  From  Modena,  another  great  road  led  northward 
to  Verona  and  the  Brenner  Pass. 

The  main  highway  to  Western  Europe  was  unques- 
tionably the  Aurelian,  which  struck  the  Mediterranean 
at  Centum  Cellse  (Civita  Vecchia),  and  followed  the 
coast  from  there  as  far  as  Arelas  (Aries),  in  the  Provin- 
cia,  which  was  a  seaport  in  Roman  times,  and  from 
which  point,  Spain,  France,  and  Britain  were  all  easily 
reached.  There  was  also  certainly  a  way  from  Milan 
into  Gaul  by  the  passes  of  the  Alps,  though  its  exact 
course  can  no  longer  be  determined.  Traces  of  Roman 
work  have,  in  fact,  been  found  on  nearly  every  Alpine 
pass  now  in  use,  and  the  "  Itineraries "  plainly  mention 
those  of  Mont  Genevre,  the  Great  and  the  Little  St. 
Bernard,  and  the   Spliigen.     There    was   another   great 


TRAVEL.  137 

system  of  highways  which  connected  Germany,  Northern 
France,  and  England. 

The  model  for  all  these  mighty  roads  was  the  oldest  and 
most  frequented  of  them  all,  the  Via  Appia.  Originally 
built  by  Appius  Claudius  in  312  B.C.,  it  was  restored  and 
virtually  reconstructed  by  the  emperors  Nerva  and  Tra- 
jan; and  it  was  their  road  which,  in  the  sixth  century 
a.d.,  excited  the  wonder  and  admiration  of  Procopius, 
who  found  it  broad  enough  for  two  teams  to  pass 
abreast,  and  paved  with  large  blocks  of  foreign  stone, 
so  accurately  fitted  that  no  joining  was  visible.  It  is 
hardly  probable  that  all  the  highroads  we  have  enumer- 
ated were  as  magnificently  constructed  as  the  Appian 
Way,  yet  the  time  made  by  the  regular  post  does  not 
seem  greatly  to  have  varied  on  the  different  routes,  and 
was  everywhere  much  the  same  as  that  of  the  modern 
diligence. 

The  speed  of  government  couriers  was  reckoned,  for 
long  distances,  at  something  over  one  hundred  English 
miles  a  day.1  Private  travelling,  by  hired  conveyance, 
was  necessarily  slower.  Caesar,  indeed,  Plutarch  tells 
us,  accomplished  the  journey  from  Pome  to  the  Phone 
(796  Roman  miles)  within  eight  days,  but  then  Caesar's 
journeys  were  considered  miracles  of  celerity.  The 
private  travellers  of  later  times  could  sometimes  make 
use  of  the  government  post,  but  only  by  special  imperial 
permission. 

Private  letters  were  usually  conveyed  by  foot-runners, 
or  tabettarii,  who  made  about  twentv-five  Poman  miles  a 
day,  covering,  for  example,  the  124  miles  from  Pome  to 
Capua  in  about  five  days. 

1  The  journey  from  Antioch  to  Constantinople,  for  example,  747 
Roman  miles,  occupied  not  quite  six  davs.  ^g. -jg.^ 

f  OF  THE  ^ 

£  UNIVERSITY 


138  THE   PRIVATE   LIFE   OF   THE   ROMANS. 

Mansiones,  or  night  quarters,  for  the  bearers  of  dis- 
patches, were  to  be  found  at  similar  intervals,  that  is, 
about  twenty-five  Roman  miles  apart,  and  they  must,  in 
most  instances,  have  been  quite  regularly  distributed, 
since  we  find  their  number  used  as  a  measure  of  dis- 
tance. Halting-places  of  a  more  sumptuous  nature  were 
provided  for  the  Emperor  and  his  especial  deputies. 

The  support  of  the  roads,  as  well  as  of  the  post-system 
of  earlier  times,  fell  entirely  upon  the  districts  through 
which  the  roads  passed;  and  though  some  portion  of 
this  expense  was  later  transferred  to  the  imperial  treas- 
ury, it  always  remained  a  heavy  charge  upon  the  prov- 
inces. 

No  public  provision  was  made  for  private  travellers, 
their  needs  being  met  by  individual  enterprise.  There 
were  men  in  most  Italian  cities  who  let  out  raedae,  which 
were  rather  roomy  four-wheeled  carriages,  and  cisia,  a 
species  of  light  two-wheeled  gig,  as  well  as  the  horses 

or  mules  to  draw  them. 
The  offices  of  these  cisiaril 
or  iumentaril,  were  at  the 
city-gates,  —  for  driving 
within  the  walls  was  almost 
unknown,  —  and  here  the 
bargain  was  made  either 
for  changing  carriage  and 
horses  from  stage  to  stage, 
or  for  making  the  whole  journey  with  the  same  team. 
Doubtless  a  man  might  also  use  his  own  conveyance,  if 
he  had  one,  with  the  horses  or  mules  to  be  hired  along 
the  road. 

In  the  latter  days  of  the  Republic,  great  pomp  began 


Cisium  (Rich). 


TRAVEL.  139 

to  be  affected  by  wealthy  travellers,  and  this  increased  to 
such  a  pitch  that  Nero's  regular  train  consisted  of  a 
thousand  wagons,  while  Poppaea  took  along  with  her 
five  hundred  she-asses  for  convenience  of  bathing  in 
their  milk,  and  tipped  her  horses'  shoes  with  gold. 

Seneca1  observes  satirically  that  "everybody  travels 
nowadays  with  a  troop  of  Numidian  cavalry  in  front, 
and  a  band  of  scouts  sent  on  ahead.  .  .  .  They  all  have 
mules,  loaded  with  vessels  of  glass  and  murrha,  and 
sculptured  by  the  hand  of  famous  craftsmen,  for  it 
would  be  beneath  a  man's  dignity  to  load  his  packs 
with  articles  which  would  bear  knocking  about."  And 
he  also  tells  us,  with  true  Stoic  vanity,  that  he  once 
made  a  two  days'  journey  with  a  friend,  attended  by 
so  few  servants  that  a  single  vehicle  sufficed  for  them 
all. 

The  traveller  of  consequence  avoided,  if  possible,  pass- 
ing a  single  night  in  any  inn.  On  the  incessantly  fre- 
quented route  from  Kome  to  Naples,  he  was  almost  sure 
either  to  have  a  villa  of  his  own,  or  a  friend  whose  hos- 
pitality he  might  demand.  Failing  these,  he  would  take 
tents  along  and  camp  out,  if  the  season  were  sufficiently 
mild,  and  doubtless  it  was  the  absence  of  distinguished 
patronage  which  made  the  inn  of  those  days  both  so  com- 
fortless and  so  cheap.  It  is  certain,  however,  that  places 
of  public  entertainment,  such  as  they  were  (cleversoria, 
tabemae,  meritoria),  existed  all  along  the  most  frequented 
roads  of  the  Empire,  and  that  they  were,  in  some  cases, 
aided  from  the  treasury.  Neighboring  proprietors  often 
built  them  on  speculation,  letting  them  to  a  landlord,  or 
managing  them  through  their  own  slaves.     At   certain 

1  See  Ep.  cxxiii.  G, 


140  THE   PRIVATE   LIFE    OF   THE   ROMANS. 

places  there  would  be  a  choice  of  inns,  and  Horace  re- 
marks 1  on  the  rival  establishments  of  Forum  Appii. 
Poplnae,  or  restaurants,  both  popinae  sellariolae  where  a 
regular  table  was  laid,  and  the  humbler  kind  where  a 
lunch  was  taken  standing,  are  mentioned  so  often  as 
to  lead  us  to  infer,  that  the  fashion  of  renting  furnished 
rooms  (meritoriae)  and  going  out  for  one's  meals  was 
as  common  in  ancient  Rome  as  in  Latin  countries  now. 

In  the  rural  inns  it  was  always  customary  to  pay  a 
lump  sum  for  board  and  lodging,  and,  indeed,  one  hardly 
sees  how  items  could  have  been  specified,  when  the  total 
bill  amounted  to  a  half  ass,  which  Polybius  says  2  was  the 
regular  charge  in  his  days  for  one  night's  entertainment 
in  the  inns  of  Cisalpine  Gaul.  Among  the  discoveries 
at  Pompeii  is  that  of  a  tavern-sign  on  which  is  depicted 
the  hostess  reckoning  the  dues  of  a  departing  guest,  of 
whom  she  demands  for  bread  and  wine  one  ass,  for  other 
food,  two  asses,  and  for  mule's  provender  the  same. 

Tavern-signs  appear  to  have  been  regularly  used, 
and  birds  and  animals  were  favorite  devices,  from  which, 
as  now,  the  tavern  took  its  name,  —  at  the  sign  of  the 
Stork,  the  Elephant,  the  great  Eagle,  the  Camel,  the 
Raven.  Inscriptions  were  often  painted  on  these  signs, 
urging  the  claims  of  the  house  upon  the  traveller,  and 
host  or  hostess  would  stand  upon  the  threshold  to  solicit 
the  patronage  of  the  passer-by.  \The  proverbial  reputa- 
tion of  inn-keepers  was  very  bad.  They  were  supposed, 
as  a  matter  of  course,  to  water  their  wine,  and  steal  the 
fodder  of  the  animals  they  stabled;  and  an  impression 
prevailed,  exaggerated,  one  may  hope,  that  they  were 
ready,  not  merely  to  murder  such  guests  as  were  sup- 

1  Hor.  Sat.  i.  5.  4.  2  Polyb.  ii.  157. 


TRAVEL.  141 

posed  to  have  valuables  about  them,  but  to  eat  them  as 
well.  Galen,  who  repeats  the  charge,  appends  by  way 
of  ghastly  commentary,  and,  as  it  would  seem,  from 
experience,  tha^_Jiiiiaaai--^dT-tastes  much  like  that  of 
swine.  Even  St.  Augustine x  confesses  to  havingheard 
tales,  which,  however,  he  declines  implicitly  to  believe, 
of  Italian  hostesses  who  put  something  into  their  cheeses, 
which  turned  those  who  partook  of  these  dainties  into 
beasts  of  burden,  whom  they  then  compelled  to  perform 
certain  tasks,  restoring  them  to  their  human  semblance 
after  these  were  completed. 

The  customs-dues  appear  to  have  been  as  much  dreaded 
as  they  are  by  the  returning  European  traveller  of  our 
own  day,  and  there  was  a  good  deal  of  evasion  on  the  one 
side,  and  of  rudeness  on  the  other.  Soldiers'  luggage 
was,  however,  free  of  duty,  and  a  man's  effects  might  be 
exempted  by  especial  favor  of  the  Emperor,  as  were  those 
of  the  sophist  Polemo  of  Smyrna,  by  Trajan. 

Highway  robbers  abounded  in  the  outlying  provinces 
of  the  Empire,  in  all  mountainous  districts,  and  especially 
in  the  tract  of  forest  which  divided  the  Pontine  marshes 
from  the  sea.  Military  expeditions  were  frequently  sent 
against  them,  but  without  much  permanent  effect.  When 
Septimius  Severus  disbanded  the  Prsetorian  guard,  a 
good  many  of  its  members,  and  of  the  class  from  which 
it  had  been  recruited,  "took  to  the  road,"  as  the  English 
phrase  used  to  be ;  and  toward  the  close  of  that  Em- 
peror's reign  (that  is  to  say,  in  the  middle  years  of  the 
third  century  a.d.),  there  was  a  famous  bandit,  bearing 
the  obviously  fictitious  name  of  Felix  Bulla,  and  com- 
manding a  band  of  six  hundred  men,  whose  history  is  an 

1  Aug.  Civ.  Dei  xviii.  18. 


142  THE   PRIVATE   LIFE   OF   THE   ROMANS. 

opera  ready  made.  His  principal  headquarters  were 
in  the  neighborhood  of  Brindisi,  where  all  tourists  of 
apparent  affluence,  arriving  either  from  the  West  or  the 
East,  were  ordered  to  stand  and  deliver.  His  force  was 
admirably  organized,  he  was  both  bold  and  wary,  and 
long  avoided  capture,  but  was  at  length  betrayed  into 
the  hands  of  the  Prefect  Papinianus.  "How  came  you 
to  be  a  robber  ? "  was  the  rather  futile  preliminary 
inquiry  of  his  judge,  to  which  the  captive  replied,  "  How 
came  you  to  be  a  prefect  ?  " 1  Felix  Bulla  was  thrown 
to  the  beasts  in  the  amphitheatre,  but  his  race  survived. 
Those  who  went  southward  from  Rome  by  day,  during 
the  first  century  of  our  era,  were,  in  general,  safe  enough, 
owing  to  the  very  press  of  travel  upon  the  road.  There 
was  a  constant  succession  of  those  pompous  caravans 
described  by  Seneca,  whose  owners  aped  imperial  luxury. 
The  expense  thus  incurred  was  often  literally  ruinous, 
and  some  of  those,  who  had  thus  flaunted  upon  the  road, 
ended  their  days  as  gladiators,  a  profession  which  Nero 
had  made  rather  fashionable.  For  the  time  being, 
however,  the  carriage  horses  of  the  ambitious  tourist 
were  well  matched  and  well  bred,  and  their  leathern 
shoes  were  furnished  with  silver  tips.  Otherwise,  the 
traveller  made  use  of  fast  mules,  which  were  no  less 
costly.  These  animals  had  often  rich  purple  housings, 
heavily  embroidered,  while  their  harnesses  were  studded 
with  gold.  The  wagons  were  sumptuously  decorated 
with  gold  and  silver  plates,  on  which  the  value  of  an 
entire  estate  might  easily  be  spent,  while  their  cushions 
and  curtains  were  of  silk  or  some  equally  expensive 
stuff. 

2Dio  Cass,  lxxvi. 


Carpentum  (Rich). 


TRANSPORTATION.  1 43 

One  of  the  vehicles  most  commonly  used  was  the  car- 
pentum.  It  had  two  wheels  and  an  arched  awning,  and 
was,  in  fact,  only  a  lux- 
urious development  of  the 
common  farm-cart,  which 
bore  the  same  name,  —  the 
cover  having  been  added 
for  protection  against  rain 
and  sun.  This  was  the 
kind  of  carriage  affected 
by  those  great  ladies  in 
whose  favor  was  first  relaxed  that  prohibition  of  the 
use  of  wheeled  vehicles  inside  the  walls  of  Rome,  which 
had  remained  in  force  throughout  the  republican  period. 
When  so  occupied,  the  carpentum,  and  a  variety  of  the 
same  called  a  pilentum,  were  always  drawn  by  mules. 
They  were  so  constructed  as  to  hold  two  persons  beside 
the  driver.  In  the  four-wheeled  raeda,  or  cdrriica,  the 
traveller  had  appliances  for  making  himself  most  com- 
fortable. Propped  upon  soft  cushions,  he  whiled  away 
the  time  with  reading,  writing,  dice-throwing  and  other 
amusements.  Martial  advises  the  man  who  sets  out  on 
a  long  journey,  to  make  Cicero  his  travelling  companion, 
and  the  elder  Pliny  used  to  have  both  an  amanuensis  and 
a  writing-table  in  his  coach. 

Smaller  than  the  carpentum,  but  covered  like  it,  and 
driven  by  the  traveller  himself,  was  the  covinus.  There 
were  also  the  open  two-wheeled  essedum  and  cisium,  each 
of  which  had  a  single  seat,  accommodating  the  driver  and 
one  other  person.  The  cisium  seems,  however,  to  have 
been  lighter  built,  for  the  essedum  was  always  drawn  by 
a  pair  of  animals,  while  the  cisium  had  shafts,  to  one  of 


144 


THE   PRIVATE   LIFE   OF   THE   ROMANS. 


which  an  extra  horse  was  often  attached,  or,  if  great 
speed  were  desired,  three  animals  would  be  harnessed 
abreast,  as  in  the  Russian  troika.  The  outside  horses 
were  called  f undies,  or  funarii,  from  the  rope  with  which 
they  were  attached  to  the  cisium,  much  in  the  same 
manner  as  a  third  horse  is  attached  to  a  street-car 
among  ourselves.     Five   miles  an  hour   was   considered 

greet  speed  even  for 
a  cisium. 

Government  couriers 
usually  rode  one  horse 
and  led  another.  The 
Romans,  until  the 
fourth  century,  seem 
never  to  have  used 
a  saddle  {sella  eques- 
tris1)  ;  they  rode  eith- 
er barebacked,  or  with 
a  pad  or  cushion  called 
the  ephippium,  similar 
to  that  always  used 
by  women,  in  which 
case,  too,  they  seem 
to  have  ridden  side- 
wise  in  feminine  fash- 
ion. With  or  without 
the  ephippium,  the 
stragulum  (housing  or 
caparison)  was  always 
used.     It  was  often  made  of  the  skin  of  a  beast  with  the 


1  Several  kinds  of  pack-saddles,  however,  existed  long  before 
this  date. 


TRANSPORTATION. 


145 


fur  on,  and  sometimes  of  leather,  which,  for  use  in  the 
army  was  covered  with  plates  of  metal,  and  served  as  a 
protection  for  the  horse — Virgil1  gives  such  a  caparison, 
"covered  with  brazen  scales  like  feathers,"  to  the  horse 
of  Chlorus,  the  priest  of  Cybele,  in  the  last  battle  for 
Latium.  Housings  of  brightly  colored  woollen  cloth 
were  used  for  mere  ornament,  and  a  leathern  band, 
adorned  with  plates  of  metal,  often  hung  down  over 
the  breast.  The  general  plan  of  the  head-stall  (ccqns- 
trum)  was  very  like  ours;  but  whether  for  riding  or 
driving,  blinders  and  curb-bits  were  unknown.  There 
was  a  special  sort  of  invalid  carriage  in  use  at  Borne 
from  very  early  times,  called  arcera,  from  its  resem- 
blance to  a  large  chest.  The  occupant  lay  within,  upon 
cushions,  while  the  driver  was  perched  upon  a  little  seat 
outside ;  but  after  the  introduction  of  litters,  the  arcera 
was  almost  entirely  superseded. 

The  lectica,  or  litter,  used  at  first  merely  for  the  trans- 
port of  the  sick  or  dead,  became  later  the  favorite  trav- 
elling carriage  for  women. 
Its  use  by  a  man  was  long 
considered  a  mark  of  effemi- 
nacy, but  in  imperial  times 
they  became  general.     The 
wealth  of  the  possessor  of 
a  lectica  was   evinced,   not 
only  by  the  richness  of  its 
ornamentation,  but  by  the 
number    of    bearers,    two, 
four,  six,  or  eight.     We    do    not   know   just   how  they 
carried  their  burden,  only  that,  when  set  down,  it  rested 

1  Virg.  Mn.  xi.  770-771. 


Lectica   (Rich). 


146  THE   PRIVATE   LIFE   OF   THE   ROMANS. 

on  four  wooden  legs.  It  also  had  a  roof,  supported  at 
the  four  corners,  and  there  were  curtains  around  the 
sides,  which  could  be  drawn  at  pleasure ;  or  else  the 
sides  were  shut  in  with  windows  made  from  plates  of 
alabaster,  or  other  translucent  stone,  such  as  may  still 
be  seen  in  some  old  Italian  churches.  The  occupant 
either  reclined  upon  a  heap  of  cushions,  or  the  lectica 
was  fitted  with  a  feather  bed.  The  basterna  was  a  litter, 
borne  by  two  mules,  one  before  and  one  behind.  All 
these  conveyances  were  doubtless  to  be  seen  any  fine 
day  on  the  Via  Appia,  as  well  as  trains  of  sumpter- 
mules  (dossuaril,  cllteUarii,  sarcinales,  etc.),  and  heavy 
carts  bringing  merchandise  to  the  markets  of  Rome. 

Except  during  the  winter  months,  when  the  great 
majority  of  vessels  was  laid  up  in  harbor,  the  Roman 
market  was  largely  supplied  by  means  of  the  boat-service 
on  the  Tiber,  from  the  harbors  of  Ostia  and  Portus 
Trajani.  A  winter  voyage  is  usually  mentioned  as  a 
thing  of  horror,  but  in  the  pleasant  months  of  the  year 
it  seems  to  have  been  a  mode  of  travelling  much  favored 
by  the  ancients,  and  more  expeditious  than  journeying 
by  land.  Although  merchant  vessels  proper  {naves 
onerarii),  such  as  those  which  brought  the  grain  supply 
from  Egypt  and  Sicily,  were  propelled  by  sails  alone,  it 
was  in  rowing  that  the  Romans,  like  the  Greeks,  chiefly 
excelled.  How  they  managed  their  many  banks  of  oars, 
no  modern  is  able  perfectly  to  understand,  and  ships 
with  ten  banks  or  more,  must  certainly  have  been  mere 
curiosities.  There  is  even  mention  of  one  vessel  with 
forty  banks,  but  three  to  five  were  the  usual  number,  and 
the  Greek  trireme  could  be  depended  upon  to  make  eight 
miles  an  hour.     The  voyage  from  Brimdusium  to  Dyrra- 


TRANSPORTATION.  147 

cliium  (Brindisi  to  Durazzo),  with  good  wind  and  weather, 
might  be  accomplished  in  twenty-four  hours,  but  what 
appliances  the  luxurious  Koman  had  for  making  himself 
comfortable  on  shipboard,  even  during  this  brief  transit, 
we  do  not  know.  Cabins  there  were,  in  the  hold  of  the 
vessel,  and  a  tent-like  contrivance  was  sometimes  erected 
on  deck,  which  would,  doubtless,  afford  a  pleasant  and 
sufficient  shelter  on  those  starlit  summer  nights  which 
were  chosen  by  preference  for  the  crossing  to  Illyria  and 
other  short  trips.  On  the  coasting  vessels,  both  sails 
and  oars  were  used,  and  they  could  make  a  speed  of  six 
to  eight  nautical  miles  an  hour. 

The  Romans  were,  upon  the  whole,  great  travellers, 
and  their  customary  journeys  may  be  classed  under  the 
three  heads  of  business,  instruction,  and  pleasure. 
Seldom,  if  ever,  has  the  world  seen  a  more  thoroughly 
organized  and  extensive  commercial  system,  than  that 
which  had  its  focus  in  Borne,  in  the  first  centuries  of  our 
era.  Never,  of  a  certainty,  since  that  time,  has  the 
same  current  coin  been  used  over  so  vast  a  stretch  of 
territory.  Local  coinage  of  silver  and  copper,  for  local 
purposes,  there  doubtless  was,  in  many  of  the  provinces ; 
but,  except  in  Egypt,  where  the  Greek  drachma  always 
held  its  own,  the  Roman  denarius  became  the  monetary 
unit  throughout  the  Empire.  It  seems,  also,  to  have  passed 
current  among  the  neighboring  independent  nations,  as  a 
Bank  of  England  note  will  do  to-day  upon  the  Conti- 
nent of  Europe.  Tacitus l  remarks,  however,  that  the 
Germans  always  gave  the  preference  to  those  silver  coins 
with  the  stamp  of  the  biga,  which  had  prevailed  before 
Nero's  day,  and  to  which  they  were  accustomed,  while 

i.Tac.  Ger.  5. 


148  THE   PRIVATE   LIEE   OF   THE   ROMANS. 

they  looked  with  suspicion  on  later  coinages.  As  for 
gold,  all  articles  of  merchandise  were  so  cheap  in  Ger- 
many, that  that  metal  was  seldom  required. 

Like  the  merchant  of  the  Middle  Ages,  his  Roman 
predecessor  seems  to  have  travelled  in  person  to  the 
markets  where  he  desired  to  buy  or  sell.  Horace  makes 
many  allusions  to  the  trader  who  "tempts  the  wintry 
sea,  moving  continually  to  and  fro  between  the  equator 
and  the  pole  "  ;  and  Manilius  describes  the  same  advent- 
urer as  buying  up  the  produce  of  the  world,  carrying  his 
own  wares  into  unknown  lands,  and  ever  acquiring  fresh 
treasures  under  novel  suns.  These  apparently  poetic 
statements  are  corroborated  by  the  monumental  inscrip- 
tion of  a  merchant  found  at  Hierapolis,  which  sets  forth 
that  he  made  seventy-two  crossings  between  Malea  on 
the  Peloponnesos  and  Italy,  while  one  C.  Oc.  Agathopus, 
declares  upon  his  own  gravestone  at  Pozzuoli,  that, 
wearied  out  with  travelling  from  East  to  West,  he  has 
here  found  repose  at  last.  These  merchant-voyages  were 
not  confined  to  the  Mediterranean  and  Black  Sea,  but 
extended  to  the  xltlantic,  to  the  ports  of  Spain,  France, 
England,  and,  very  possibly,  Ireland.  The  conquest  of 
Egypt  also  opened  the  way  to  the  East  Indies.  The 
regular  route  of  the  merchant  led  him  first  to  Alexandria, 
starting  whence  in  summer,  he  struck  the  mouth  of  the 
Nile,  and  sailed  up  that  stream  to  Coptos,  —  a  twelve 
days'  voyage  with  favorable  Avinds.  At  Coptos,  his 
wares  were  transferred  to  the  backs  of  camels,  and  the 
caravan  set  out  for  the  shores  of  the  Red  Sea.  Moving 
only  by  night,  on  account  of  the  intense  heat,  and  resting 
all  day,  it  took  nearly  a  fortnight  to  reach  the  coast,  with 
which    the  Ptolomean  canal   formed   another  means  of 


TRANSPORTATION.  *  149 

communication.  In  Strabo's  time,  a  fleet  of  a  hundred 
and  twenty  vessels  plied  constantly  between  Myos- 
hormos,  a  Red  Sea  port,  lying  nearly  opposite  Mt.  Sinai 
and  the  extremity  of  Arabia  Petrgea,  and  India ;  and  each 
of  these  vessels,  Pliny  further  informs  us,  had  a  company 
of  archers  on  board,  to  protect  the  cargo  against  pirates. 
A  voyage  of  thirty  days  brought  the  vessels  either  to 
Ocelis  (Acila),  in  Arabia,  at  the  lower  extremity  of  the 
Red  Sea,  or  to  Cane,  on  the  south  coast  of  Arabia.  It 
was  forty  days'  journey  hence,  to  the  coast  of  Malabar, 
which,  however,  was  in  such  bad  repute  for  safety,  that 
it  was  customary  to  prolong  the  voyage  to  a  more 
southerly  point.  The  whole  expedition,  from  Alex- 
andria to  India  and  back,  occupied  from  six  to  seven 
months,  that  is  to  say,  from  midsummer  to  some  time 
in  the  following  February.  The  incredible  number  of 
Roman  coins  found  in  India,  testifies  clearly  enough  to 
the  extent  of  the  Indo-Roman  commerce.  There  is, 
indeed,  some  reason  to  suppose  that  a  certain  denarius, 
bearing  the  image  of  Augustus,  with  his  adopted  sons, 
Lucius  and  Gaius,  was  struck  off  for  this  trade  only. 

The  importations  from  the  East  were  much  the  same 
in  Roman  times  as  now,  —  silk,  spices,  pearls,  ivory,  and 
gold.  The  article  of  commerce  most  sought  in  the 
markets  of  Northern  Europe  was  amber  (electrum  or 
siicinitm),  for  which  there  was  a  great  demand  among 
the  Romans,  and,  in  quest  of  which  the  merchants  often 
went  far  beyond  the  boundary  of  the  Roman  Empire. 
Tacitus  tells  *  of  a  colony  of  Roman  merchants,  which 
the  army  ran  across  in  Bohemia,  who  confessed  that 
they  had  come  there  first  in  hopes  of  gain,  and  then 

1  Tac.  Ann.  ii.  02. 


150  THE   PRIVATE   LIFE   OF   THE   ROMANS. 

stayed  on,  till  the  new  ties  formed  in  this  barbarous  land 
had  grown  stronger  than  the  old.  There  was  also  an 
excellent  opening  for  trade  in  Gaul,  whose  inhabitants 
were  always  ready  to  give  a  slave  for  a  cask  of  wine. 

Wherever  a  permanent  camp  of  Koman  soldiers  was 
established,  the  Roman  merchant  speedily  found  his 
way,  and  it  would  be  hard  to  say  which  formed  the  more 
effective  missionary  of  Roman  civilization.  Foreign 
merchants  also  visited  Italy  in  large  numbers,  especially 
those  of  the  Orient,  which  last  came,  in  the  process  of 
time,  so  to  throng  all  ports  of  the  Empire,  that  in  the 
fifth  century  Syrian  and  merchant  appear  to  have  become 
synonymous  terms.  "  Here,"  writes 1  the  Bishop  Sido- 
nius  Apollinaris  from  Ravenna,  in  his  whimsical  descrip- 
tion of  that  venerable  city  as  a  place  where  everything 
is  topsy-turvy,  "here  priests  let  out  money  at  usury, 
and  Syrians  sing  psalms." 

After  Rome,  the  most  important  commercial  centres 
were  Corinth,  Alexandria,  and  Aries,  and  certain  places 
appear  also  then,  as  now,  to  have  had  a  monopoly  of  the 
trade  in  certain  articles.  Thus  Alexandria  was  said  to 
supply  the  whole  world  with  glass  and  paper,  and  Spain 
sent  shiploads  of  quince  marmalade  in  all  directions.  The 
Romans  imported  their  beloved  fish  sauces  largely  from 
Antibes,  and  preferred  the  fine  linen  of  Berytus  (Bey- 
rout)  to  that  of  any  other  make. 

Great  stress  was  laid  upon  travel  as  putting  a  finishing 
touch  to  the  education  of  a  distinguished  youth,  whose 
mind  was  supposed  to  be  expanded  by  the  mere  sight  of 
novel  scenes.  Rich  young  Romans  were  sent  to  study 
(theoretically)    for   a   year  or   more  away  from  home, 

i  Sid.  Ap.  Ep.  i.  1. 


TRAVEL.  1 51 

either  in  some  Italian  city  or  preferably  in  Greece. 
Often  they  followed  from  place  to  place  some  philosopher 
whose  tenets  they  had  embraced ;  for  the  rhetoricians 
and  sophists  Avere  perpetually  on  the  move,  and  their- 
nomad  life  was  adopted  by  other  classes  of  people.  Not 
onlyj^uack-doctors,  but  physicians  in  good  and  regular 
standing,  travelled  about  the  world,  and  took  pride  in 
the  breadth  of  their  experience.  So  also  did  portrait- 
painters  and  skilled  artisans  of  all  kinds,  and  unques- 
tionably there  were  numbers  of  strolling  troupes  of 
actors,  musicians,  and  athletes. 

A  sea-voyage  and  change  of  air  were  favorite  prescrip- 
tions with  the  physicians  of  those  days,  and  recommended 
for  almost  all  ailments,  —  pulmonary  weakness,  habitual 
pain  in  the  head,  low  spirits,  and  paralysis.  Egypt  was 
one  of  the  favorite  health  resorts ;  a  residence  among 
pine-woods  was  often  recommended ;  milk  cures  were  to 
be  found  at  many  seaside  resorts,  such  as  Stabise  (Castel- 
lamare),  whilst  almost  all  the  medicated  springs  we  know 
were  frequented  in  Roman  times. 

There  were  also  many  religious  pilgrimages  to  the 
temples  of  distinguished  divinities,  or  to  oracles  of  old 
and  high  repute  ;  while  on  occasions  like  that  of  the 
Olympic  games  in  Greece,  or  any  particularly  gorgeous 
gladiatorial  show  at  Rome,  the  influx  of  pilgrims  from 
abroad  was  often  tremendous. 

The  Roman  also  travelled  as  a  mere  tourist,  most  of 
all  to  Greece,  whose  beautiful  monuments  every  self- 
respecting  citizen  of  the  later  Republic  felt  that  he  ought 
once,  at  least,  to  have  seen.  There  could  hardly  be  a 
Grecian  town  so  insignificant  as  not  to  boast  some  temple 
which,  over  and  above  its  religious  character,  partook  of 


152  THE    PRIVATE   LIFE   OF    THE   ROMANS. 

that  of  a  museum,  with  glorious  works  of  art  dating 
from  the  greatest  period,  and  relics  of  demi-gods  and 
heroes.  Though  somewhat  shamefaced  about  accepting 
them  implicitly,  the  Roman  traveller  was  always  deeply 
interested  in  objects  which  claimed  connection  with  that 
great  epic  war  under  the  walls  of  Troy,  which  had  led  to 
the  building  of  Rome.  Enthusiasts  in  this  line  even 
went  to  Asia  Minor  on  an  express  hunt  for  Trojan  relics, 
while  Egypt,  after  its  conquest,  attracted  larger  and 
larger  numbers  of  the  curious  year  by  year.  The  trav- 
eller of  classic  times  had  few  guide-books,  but  he  could 
hardly  reach  a  city  where  he  would  not  find  a  living 
guide  prepared  to  take  him  about,  and  show  him  all  that 
was  worth  seeing.  These  valets-de-place,  though  not  yet 
called  by  the  name  of  the  most  versatile  of  Romans,  were 
often  antiquarians  of  education  and  position. 

But  while  the  Roman  of  the  Augustan  Age  had  often 
a  highly  cultivated  taste  in  the  matter  of  art,  his  enjoy- 
ment of  the  beauties  of  nature  was  much  more  limited. 
Those  grander  aspects  and  phenomena  of  the  outer  world, 
which  are  so  thrilling  to  the  modern  mind,  were  simply 
uncomfortable  and  repugnant  to  him ;  and  this  is  prob- 
ably why,  despite  his  love  of  change  and  restless  desire 
to  enlarge  his  borders,  the  Roman  was  never  a  very 
ardent  explorer.  Certain  of  the  gentler  aspects  and 
humbler  charms  of  nature  —  cool  springs  with  mossy 
banks,  broad,  green  meado\vs  and  quiet  sheets  of  water, 
shady  groves  and  fair  garden-beds  — he  did  love  intensely, 
as  countless  passages  in  the  Latin  poets  show ;  and  such 
he  would  have  about  his  country-house,  or  if,  like 
Atticus,  he  were  rich  enough,  even  in  the  city.  But  his 
villa  was  his  first  extravagance,  and  always  his  peculiar 


TRAVEL.  153 

pet  and  pride.  "  In  all  the  length  and  breadth  of  this 
Empire,"  says  Seneca,1  "there  is  no  lake  whose  borders 
are  not  studded  with  the  roofs  of  Roman  nobles,  no  river- 
bank  where  they  have  not  built."  All  along  the  Medi- 
terranean, far  south  from  Ostia,  these  villas  lined  the 
coast,  crowding  close  upon  one  another  at  favorite  sites, 
like  Baise.  The  inland  estates,  like  those  of  the  younger 
Pliny,  near  the  sources  of  the  Tiber  in  Umbria  (the 
modern  Citta  di  Castello),  were  of  much  greater  extent; 
but  even  so,  they  were  almost  continuous. 

It  is  difficult  to  say  how  many  distinct  properties  a 
Roman  of  rank  might  not  possess  in  late  republican  or 
early  imperial  times.  If  Cicero  and  Pliny,  who  have  told 
us  so  much  about  their  various  installations,  are  to  be 
taken  as  representative  cases,  one  would  say  that  four  or 
five  huge  country-seats,  and  as  many  lesser  villas,  would 
be  a  moderate  allowance,  while  the  dates  of  the  letters  of 
these  two  show  how  incessantly  they  moved  from  one 
place  to  another.  Sometimes,  no  doubt,  they  did  so  at 
the  bidding  of  their  affairs.  Often  they  were  impelled 
by  mere  restlessness  and  love  of  change. 

"Hence  are  vague  journeyings  undertaken,"  says 
Seneca2  in  his  discourse  on  Tranquillity  of  Spirit,  "and 
divers  coasts  are  visited,  but  everywhere,  whether  on 
land  or  on  sea,  we  discover  that  levity  of  mind  which  is 
always  disgusted  with  the  present.  Now  we  seek  Cam- 
pania, and  anon,  growing  disgusted  with  its  delicacies, 
we  make  for  the  wilderness  and  explore  the  forests  of 
Bruttium  and  Lucania.  But  the  craving  for  something 
pleasant  revives  in  the  desert,  and  our  dainty  eves  must 
needs  have  some  relief  from  the  tedious  squalor  of  those 

1  Sen.  Ep.  lxxxix.  21.  2  Sen.  De  Tran.  An.  ii. 


154  THE   PRIVATE    LIFE    OF    THE    ROMANS. 

rude  spots.  Tarentum  is  the  place  !  —  we  praise  its  har- 
bor, its  exquisite  winter  climate,  and  its  fine  old  mansions, 
finally  we  bend  our  steps  toward  the  city  of  cities.  Too 
long  have  our  ears  missed  the  din  of  the  streets,  the 
plaudits  of  the  theatre.  We  are  ready  even  for  a  taste  of 
human  blood.  Thus  journey  follows  journey,  and  scene 
succeeds  to  scene,  and  so  it  is,  as  the  poet  Lucretius  says, 
that  'every  man  would  from  himself  escape.'  " 

The  restless  being  described  in  this  passage  was,  of 
course,  a  spoiled  child  of  fortune,  but  never  at  any 
period  of  his  history  was  the  Roman  very  ingenious  in 
devising  for  himself  home  amusements  and  simple  recrea- 
tions. It  was  not  quite  natural  for  him  to  play.  The 
mimes  and  songs  and  dances  of  primitive  times  had 
almost  all  a  religious  significance.  They  appeal  to  the 
gods,  and  were  laudatory  or  propitiatory  in  their  char- 
acter. There  are,  indeed,  allusions  in  Virgil's  roseate 
picture  of  the  good  old  times  to  something  like  the  rustic 
sports  of  (i  Merrie  England,"  —  "  leaping  upon  greased 
and  inflated  hides,  in  the  fair  meadows,"  and  the  like ; ! 
and  Cicero  and  Suetonius  both  speak  of  casting  lots  by 
means  of  the  game  called  "micare  digitis,"  which  consisted 
of  throwing  out  under  cover  a  certain  number  of  fingers 
for  your  adversary  to  guess,  and  which  was  much  the 
same  as  the  mora  of  modern  Italy.  But  even  these  ele- 
mentary amusements,  though  ancient,  were,  perhaps,  not 
indigenous,  while  the  dramatic  representations  and  games 
of  the  circus,  which  came  to  exercise  so  enthralling  a  fas- 
cination over  the  town-bred  Roman  of  later  times,  were 
certainly  an  importation  from  Greece.  These  monster 
shows  however,  of  which  the  great  majority  were  organ- 

1  Virg.  Geor,  ii.  382. 


AMUSEMENTS.  155 

ized  and  exhibited  for  political  purposes,  belong  to  the 
public  rather  than  the  private  life  of  the  Roman. 

It  remains  to  say  a  few  words  concerning  the  games  of 
children  and  youths.  The  former,  like  the  rising  genera- 
tion always  and  everywhere,  had  their  dolls  and  their 
hobby-horses,  their  toy  houses  and  carts.  They  skipped 
stones,  they  spun  tops  (turbines),  they  walked  upon  stilts 
(grallae).  They  had  also  active  games  of  emulation  or 
skill,  in  which  the  best  fellow  won,  and  Horace  quotes 
in  his  first  epistle,  the  boys  who  say,  "  If  you  beat,  you 
shall  be  king  "  (rex  eris,  si  recte  fades) ,  while  the  rather 
vulgar  catchword  of  a  boys'  foot  race,  "  occupet  extremum 
scabies"  (a  murrain  seize  the  hindmost),  is  applied  by 
the  same  humorous  author  in  his  Ars  Poetica  to  the 
freaks  of  a  too  froward  literary  ambition. 

Nuts  were  such  very  favorite  playthings  with  a  Roman 
boy,  that  the  expression  nuces  relinquere  came  to  be 
synonymous  with  the  putting  away  of  childish  things,  as 
we  have  already  seen  in  the  case~of~"the  young  bride- 
groom, of  whom  largess  of  nuts  was  demanded  by  the 
gamins  who  followed  his  bridal  procession.  Many  differ- 
ent games  were  played  with  these  cheap  and  convenient 
counters,  such  as  the  Indus  castellorum,  which  required 
four  nuts,  of  which  three  had  to  be  so  arranged  that  the 
fourth  could  be  balanced  upon,  without  displacing  them  ; 
which  done,  all  the  four  accrued  to  the  deft  player ;  and 
the  game  of  par  impar,  which  explains  itself,  being  pre- 
cisely the  universal  "odd  or  even  ?  " 

The  youth  who  had  outgrown  nuts  or  marbles  played 
ball,  either  by  himself,  with  one,  two,  or  three  balls,  or 
with  one  or  more  associates,  who  had  to  play  by  turn 
(tiatatim  liaJere),  and  must  be  equally  expert  in  throwing 


156 


THE   PRIVATE   LIFE   OF   THE   ROMANS. 


(dare  or  mittere),  catching  (excipere),  and  returning  (re- 
mittere  or  repercutere).  The  trigonw&s  a  triangular  game 
of  ball  sufficiently  dignified  to  be  played  upon  the  Campus 
Martius  by  grown  men,  and  difficult  enough  to  require 
much  practice.  The  chief  peculiarity  of  the  trigon  was 
that  the  balls  were  not  delivered  in  regular  order,  but 
flung  to  any  player  at  the  caprice  of  the  server,  and  each 
of  the  three  players  had  to  catch  and  throw  simultane- 
ously. The  sphaeromachia  was  a  still  more  elaborate 
game  of  ball,  in  which  the  players  took  sides,  and  their 
ground  was  marked  out  somewhat  as  for  lawn-tennis. 

Children  of  a  yet  larger  growth  amused  themselves 
with  the  innumerable  games  of  hazard  which  depend 
upon  the  throwing  of  dice  (tesserae  or  tall).  Tesserae 
were  cubical,  and  marked  exactly  like  the  dice  of  to-day. 
They  were  shaken  upon  a  flat  surface  from  a  cup  or  dice- 
box,  which  went  by  many  names,  —  turricula,  fritillus, 
orca.  Three  dice  were  usually  thrown,  and  the  high- 
est throw  was,  of  course, 
triple  sixes.  Tall  were  origi- 
nally made  from  the  ankle- 
bones  of  animals,  whence  their 
name.  They  were  numbered 
upon  four  sides  only,  being 
rounded  on  the  other  two. 
Four  was  the  number  regu- 
larly thrown,  and  the  highest  cast,  called  Venus,  was 
that  in  which  the  four  different  numbers,  one,  three, 
four,  and  six  came  uppermost  (two  and  five  were  never 
marked  upon  tall).  There  were  also  several  games 
played  with  calculi  (balls  or  pellets)  upon  a  board 
(tabula),  a  favorite  one  being  the  so-called  ludus  latrun- 


Fritillus  (Rich). 


AMUSEMENTS.  167 

cularius,  which  bore  some  faint  resemblance  to  chess,  and 
where  victory  seems  to  have  consisted  in  capturing 
and  disabling  as  many  thieves  (latrones)  as  possible. 
But  war  was,  after  all,  the  Roman's  favorite  pastimo. 
and  no  manner  of  contest  upon  a  mimic  field  commanded 
his  ardent  interest.  . 


APPENDIX. 


i. 

Roman  Measures  of  Length  with  English  Equivalents. 

A.     Smaller  Measures. 

Digitus =  .7281  in. 

1J  Digiti  =  Uncia =  .9708  in. 

4  Digiti  or  3  Unciae  =  Palmus =  2.9124  in. 

3  Palrai  =  Palmus  Major  (late) =  8.7372  in. 

4  Palmi  =  Pes =  11.6496  in. 

5  Palmi  =  Palmipes =  1  ft.  2.562    in. 

6  Palmi  =  Cubitus =  1  ft.  5.4744  in. 

B.     Larger  Measures. 

Pes =              11.6496  in. 

2}  Pedes      =  Graclus =      2  ft.    5.124    in. 

2  Graclus      =  Passus =      4  ft.  10.248    in. 

2  Passus      =  Decempeda  or  Pertica    .     .  =      9  ft.    8.496    in. 

12  Perticae   =  Actus1 =  116  ft.    5.952    in. 

1000  Passus  =  Mille  Passuum  .     .     .     .   =  4854  ft.  =  .9193  mile. 


II. 

Roman  Square  Measure. 
Pes  Quadratus      =  .94245  sq.  ft. 

480  Ped.  Quad.  =  Actus  Simplex     =  1  sq.  R.  180.127  sq.  ft. 

5  Act.  Simp.     =  Uncia2  =  8  sq.  R.    83.885  sq.  ft. 

6  Unciae  =  Actus  Quadratus  =  1  rood     9  sq.  R.  231.07  sq.  ft. 
2  Act.  Quad.      =  Iugerum  3  =  2  roods  19  sq.  R.  189.89  sq.  ft. 

1  The  Actus  was  the  regulation  length  of  furrow  in  ploughing  with 
oxen,  and  was  to  be  drawn  without  breathing  space. 

2  That  is  twelfth  part  of  Iugerum. 

3  Or  very  nearly  rive-eighths  of  our  acre. 

159 


160  THE   PRIVATE    LIFE   OF   THE   ROMANS. 


III. 

Roman  Liquid  Measure. 

Ligula =                 .024  pts. 

Cyathus  (Uncia of  Sextarius)  =                 .096  pts. 

Quartarius  (y^    "          "         )  =                 .289  pts. 

Hemina       (T62-    "          "         )  =                  .578  pts. 

Sextarius =               1.155  pts. 

Congius =    3  qts.    .934  pts. 

Urna =13  qts.  1.735  pts. 

Amphora =27  qts.  1.471  pts. 

Culeus =  138  gal.  2  qts.  1.53    pts. 


4  Ligulae 

3  Cyathi 

2  Quartarii   : 
2  Heminae 
6  Sextarii 

4  Congii 
2  Urnae 

20  Amphorae 


8  Sextarii 
2  Semimodii 


IV. 

Roman  Dry  Measure. 

Sextarius  1      = 

Semimodius    = 

Modius2  = 


.993  pts. 
3  qts.  1.944  pts. 
7  qts.  1.888  pts. 


Roman  Weights. 

Uncial  Divisions  of  the  As. 


1^  Unciae 

1£  Sescuucia 
1£  Sextautes 
1£  Quadrantes 
1]  Trientes 


Uncia  3 

Sescuncia 

Sextans 

Quadrans 

Triens 

Quincunx 


2  unciae  = 

3  unciae  = 

4  unciae  = 


Grammes.        Oz 

=    27.288  = 

40.932  = 

54.576  = 

81.864  = 

109.152  = 


=    5  unciae  =  136.44    = 


Grains 
(Avoir.). 

421.108 

194.163 

404.716 

388.324 

371.932 

355.54 


1  The  Sextarius  of  dry  and  liquid  measure  was  of  the  same  capacity, 
and  the  same  subdivisions  were  made  use  of. 

2  Or,  for  rough  calculation,  the  Modius  equals  the  peck,  and  the  Sex- 
tarius the  pint. 

3  The  Uncia  differs  from  the  ounce  avoirdupois  (437.5  grains)  by  16.392 
grains. 


APPENDIX. 


ll)l 


Grammes. 

Oz. 

Grains 
(Avoir.). 

1\  Quincunces 

=  Semis          =    6 

unciae 

=  1G3.728 

=    o 

339.148 

1 '  Semes 

=  Septunx     =    7 

unciae 

=  191.016 

=    6 

322.756 

lh  Septunces 

=  Bes              =    8 

unciae 

=  218.304 

=    7 

306.364 

1£  Besses 

=  Dodrans      =    9 

unciae 

=  245.592 

=    8 

289.972 

1^  Dodrantes 

=  Dextans      =  10 

unciae 

=  272.88 

=    9 

273.580 

lyL  Dextantes 

=  Deunx         =11 

unciae 

=  300. 1G 

=  10 

257.188 

lyL  Deunces 

=  As  (Libra)  =  12 

unciae 

=  327.45 

=  11 

240.796 

B.     Divisions  of  the   i 

Uncia. 

4 

Grammes. 

Grains. 
(Avoir.). 

Siliqua 

= 

.189 

= 

2.924 

3  Siliquae 

=       Obolus 

— 

.568 

— 

8.77.°. 

2  Oboli 

=       Scrupulum 

— 

1.137 

= 

17.546 

2  Scrupula 

=       Semisextula 

= 

2.274 

= 

35.092 

3  Scrupula 

=       Drachma 

= 

3.411 

= 

52.638 

4  Scrupula 

=       Sextula 

= 

4.548 

= 

70.185 

6  Scrupula 

=       Sicilicus 

— 

6.822 

= 

105.277 

8  Scrupula 

=       Duella 

— 

9.096 

= 

140.369 

12  Scrupula 

=       Semuncia 

— 

13.644 

— 

210.55  \ 

2  Semunciae 

=       Uncia 

= 

27.288 

= 

421.108 

12  Unciae 

=       As  (Libra) 

= 

327.45 

= 

5053.296 

VI. 

Roman  Money. 
A.      B.C.   268-217. 


Weight  in 
Grains  (Avoir.). 

Value  in 
Money. 

As  (copper)1              =   1754.613     = 

$.01968 

2\  Asses 

=       Sestertius  (silver)     =        17.546     = 

8.0492 

2  Sestertii 

=       Quinarius  (silver)     =       35.092     = 

•S.0984 

2  Quinarii 

=       Denarius  (silver)  -    =       70.184     = 

8.1968 

1  In  still  earlier  times  the  As  of  money,  like  the  As  of  weight,  con- 
tained 5053.296  grains.    The  relative  value  of  silver  and  copper  250:  1. 

2  Denarius  =  75  Libra. 


162 


THE   PRIVATE    LIFE    OF   THE   ROMANS. 


4  Asses 
4  Sestertii 


B.     Coinage  of  217  B.C. 


As  (copper)  x 
Sestertius  (silver)    = 
Denarius  (silver)  2    = 


Weight  in 
Grains  (Avoir.). 

419.986     = 

15.0395   = 

60.158     = 


Value. 

$.0105 
$.042 

$.168 


4  Asses 
4  Sestertii 
25  Denarii 


C.     Coinage  of  Augustus. 


As  (copper) 
Sestertius4  (alloy) 
Denarius  (silver) 
Aureus5  (gold) 


Weight  in 
Grains  (Avoir.). 

=  240.6323  = 

=  481.264  = 

=  60.112  = 

=  120.224  = 


Value. 

$.01305 
$.0522 

$.2088 

$5.22 


1  Silver  to  copper,  112  : 1. 

2  Denarius  =  s\  Libra. 

3  It  is  not  absolutely  certain  that  the  As  in  weight  equalled  four 
Denarii. 

4  Often  coined  as  a  piece  of  four  Asses,  as  we  speak  of  our  dime  as  a 
ten-cent  piece. 

5  The  Aureus,  though  nominally  weighing  &  Libra  throughout  im- 
perial times,  became  more  and  more  debased  by  alloy  and  in  size,  till 
in  the  time  of  Caracalla  it  was  worth  about  $4.40. 

The  relative  value  of  the  same  weight  of  the  different  metals  in  the 
time  of  Augustus  was,  according  to  Mommsen :  — 

Copper  to  gold,     1 :  666|. 
Alloy  to  gold,        1 :  333|. 
Silver  to  gold,       1 :  121. 
Copper  to  silver,  1 :  53|. 
Alloy  to  silver,      1 :  26|. 
Copper  to  alloy,    1 : 2. 


APPENDIX. 


\&v.  ^  n  y     ^ 
or  t«*         ^ 

16^ 


TABLE   VII. 
Months  of  the  Julian  Calendar  with  English  Equivalents. 


Januarius 

Martius. 

Aprilis. 

Sextilis. 
(Augustus 

) 

Februarius. 

Maius. 
Iulius. 

Iunius. 
September. 

December 

October. 

November. 

1 

Kal.  Ian. 

Kal.  Feb 

. 

Kal.  Mar. 

Kal.  Apr. 

2 

iv.   Non.    Ian. 

iv.  Non. 

Feb. 

vi.  Non.  Mar. 

iv.  Non.  Apr. 

3 

iii.       " 

i.  i 

iii.      " 

t  i 

v.        "       " 

iii.      " 

4 

Prid.  " 

w 

Prid.  " 

u 

iv.      " 

Prid.  " 

5- 

Non.  Ian. 

Non.  Feb. 

iii.      "        " 

Non.  Apr. 

6 

viii.  Id. 

C( 

viii.  Id. 

Feb. 

Prid.  " 

viii.  Id.      " 

7 

vii.       " 

( t 

vii.     " 

i  i 

Non.  Mar. 

vii.      " 

8 

vi. 

C( 

vi. 

<  ( 

viii.  Id.   Mar. 

vi.       "       " 

9 

v. 

t< 

v. 

C( 

vii.      "       " 

v.        "       " 

10 

iv.         " 

( i 

iv.       " 

( ( 

vi.       " 

iv.      " 

11 

iii.        " 

t< 

iii. 

<  < 

v.         "       " 

iii.      " 

12 

Prid.    " 

1 ( 

Prid.  " 

i  I 

iv.       "       " 

Prid.  " 

13 

Id.  Ian. 

Id.  Feb. 

iii. 

Id.  Apr. 

14 

xix.   Kal.  Feb. 

xvi.  Kal. 

Mar. 

Prid.  "       " 

xviii.  Kal.  Mar. 

15 

xviii.    " 

XV.       " 

" 

Id.  Mar. 

xvii.      "       " 

16 

xvii.     " 

xiv.    " 

i  i 

xvii.  Kal.  Apr. 

xvi.       "       ': 

17 

xvi.     " 

•  •  •              r  r 

Xlll.      " 

(< 

xvi.     "       " 

XV.          "        " 

18 

XV. 

xii.     " 

i  i 

XV.        "         " 

xiv.       "       " 

19 

xiv.     " 

xi.      " 

<( 

xiv.     "       " 

xiii.       "       " 

20 

•  •  •            it 

Xlll.       " 

x.        " 

i  i 

xiii.     "       " 

xii.        "       " 

21 

xii.       " 

ix.      " 

i  <. 

xii.      "       " 

xi.         "       " 

22 

xi. 

•  •  •          /  f 

vm.    " 

i  < 

xi.       "       " 

x.           "       " 

23 

X. 

vii.     ' ' 

it 

x.        "       " 

ix.          "       " 

24 

ix. 

vi.      " 

a 

ix.       "       " 

viii.       "       " 

25 

viii.     " 

v.        " 

u 

viii.     "       " 

vii.        ".     " 

26 

vii.       " 

iv.      " 

u 

vii.      "       " 

vi.         "       " 

27 

vi. 

iii.      « 

(( 

vi.       "       " 

v.          "       " 

28 

v. 

Prid.  " 

u 

v.        "       " 

iv.         "       " 

29 

iv.        " 

iv.       " 

iii.         "       " 

30 

iii. 

iii.       "       " 

Prid.     "       " 

31 

Prid.   " 

Prid.  " 

To  February  was  added,  every  fourth  year,  an  extra  day  (dies 
intercalaris),  which  had  its  place  after  the  vii.  Kal.  Mar.,  i.e. 
Feb.  23d. 


164 


THE   PRIVATE   LIFE   OF   THE    ROMANS. 


TABLE    VIII. 
The  Roman  Day. 


Summer 

Solstice. 

Winter  Solstice. 

Sunrise 

4.27 

A.  M. 

7.33     a.  M. 

1st  hour  ends    . 

5.42* 

u 

8.17*      " 

2d       " 

6.58 

( ( 

9.2 

3d       " 

8.13* 

c  t 

9.46*      " 

4th      « 

9.29 

i 1 

10.31"      " 

5th     " 

10.44* 

<  i 

11.15*      " 

6th     " 

12. 

M. 

12.               M. 

7th     " 

1-16* 

P.  M. 

12.44*  p.  m. 

8th      " 

2.31 

(  c 

1.29"      " 

9th      " 

3.461 

u 

2.13*      » 

10th      " 

5.2 

( < 

2.58"      " 

11th      " 

6.17* 

( I 

3.42*     " 

12th      " 

7.33 

i  1 

4.27"      " 

Length  of  day     hour  at  summer  solstice,  75*  minutes. 

"         "    night     "      "  "  "  44* 

"         "    day        "      "    winter  "  44£        " 

night     "      "  "  "  75* 


1 1 
1 1 


INDEX. 


Abacus,  53,  60,  61. 
Agricultural    implements,    120- 

124. 
Agriculture,  105-134. 
Alae,  32. 
Asses,  113. 
Atrium,  28-32,  35,  46. 

Baths,  48-50. 
Beans,  126. 
Bees,  119. 
Bibliotheca,  36. 
Books,  36,  37. 
Bread,  77-79. 
Brides,  12,  13. 
Bulla,  57,  58,  64. 
Burial  places,  private,  22 ;  pub- 
lic, 25. 

Candelabra,  41,  42. 
Carriage-hire,  138. 
Cattle,  110-112. 
Cena,  47,  50,  51,  53-55,  75. 
Children,  57-66. 
Cldvus  latus,  64,  96. 
Clients,  74-76. 
Cloaks,  98,  99,  108. 
Clothing,  88-104,  108. 
Columbaria,  25. 


Comissatio,  76. 
Commemoration  of  the  dead,  23, 

26. 
Commerce,  centres  of,  150. 
Cremation,  22-24,  26. 
Crops,  rotation  of,  15. 
Cubicula,  34,  36,  38. 
Culina,  34. 
Cultivation  of  the  olive,  130-132  ; 

of  the  vine,  86,  127-129. 
Custom-dues,  143. 

Day,  Roman,  divisions  of,  43-45, 

164  ;  how  passed,  45,  46. 
Divorce,  15-17. 
Dress,  88-104,  108. 
Dyes,  93,  94. 

Education,  58,  59,  150,  151. 


Fabrics,  cotton,  90  ;   linen,  89  ; 

mixed,  90,  103  ;  silk,  90,  91  ; 

woollen,  88,  89. 
Farms,  105-107. 
Fauces,  33. 
Fish,  83-85,  119. 
Flats,  38. 
Flour,  78,  79. 
Food,  77-88,  108. 
165 


166 


INDEX. 


Fruit,  81,  82. 
Fulling,  93. 

Funerals,  private,  24,  25  ;  pub- 
lic, 17-24. 
Furniture,  39-43,  51-54. 

Game,  83,  119. 
Games,  154-157. 
Goats,  116. 
Grafting,  132. 
Grain,  79,  125. 
Grammaticus,  62,  Go. 
Guests,  72,  73. 
Guides,  152. 

Hair,  dressing  of  the,  12,  99,  100, 

103,  104. 
Head-gear,  100. 
Hens,  117,  118. 
Highways,    chief,  from    Rome, 

135,  137  ;  how  maintained,  13  ; 

robbers  on,  141. 
Honey,  85. 

Horses,  112,  113,  144,  145. 
Hospitium,  72,  73. 
Hour,  Roman,  44,  45,  164. 
House,  Roman,  28-39,  48. 

Ientaculum,  46. 
Imagines,  20,  21,  28. 
Interment,  22,  25,  26. 
Ius  suffragii,  65  ;  oscull,  9. 

Jewellery,  102,  104. 

Lavdtrlna,  48. 
Lectl,  39-41. 
Letters,  39,  40,  137. 
Liberties,  7,  74. 
TMterator,  59,  60. 


Litters,  145,  146. 
Looms,  92. 
Lustrdtio,  57. 

Mansiones,  138. 
Manus,  2,  9,  10. 
Market-gardens,  127. 
Marriage,  8-17. 
Mensae,  41,  51,  52. 
Merchants,  148,  149. 
Meridatio,  47. 
Mills,  for  grain,  79-81 ;  for  oil, 

124,  125. 
Money,  61,  147,  161,  162. 
Mourning,  23,  26. 
Mules,  117,  146. 

Names,  of  men,  3-5,  7,  8,  57,  64  ; 
of  slaves  and  freedmen,  6,  7  ; 
of  women,  5,  6,  8. 

Oil,  77,  85,  86,  124,  125,  131, 132. 
Olive-raising,  130-132. 
Ostium,  30,  35. 

Paedagogus,  63. 

Pallet,  103. 

Peacocks,  119. 

Peristylum,  34. 

Pigeons,  118. 

Pigs,  116,  117. 

Pinacotheca,  36. 

Post,  public,  and  private,  137. 

Prandium,  47. 

Press,  for  oil  and  wine,  125. 

Pulse,  126. 

Ehetor,  63,  64. 
Road-making,  137. 


INDEX. 


167 


Sacrdriam,  34. 

Salutatio,  46. 

Sandals,  102. 

Sheep,  114-116. 

Shoes,  101. 

Slaves,  6,   7,   38,  53,  66-72,   77, 

107-109. 
Snails,  119. 
Spinning,  91. 
Sponsdlia,  11. 
Stola,  103. 

Table-ware,  42,  53,  54. 
Tablinum,  32,  33. 
Tirocinium,  65. 


Toga,  64-66,  93,  95-98,  103. 
Travelling,  138,  142-154. 

Vegetables,  81,  82,  127. 
Vehicles,  138,  143,  145. 
Vessels,  146,  147. 
Vilicus,  107,  108. 
Vine  culture,  127-129. 

Wedding  ceremonies,  13-15. 
Wine,  55,  56,  85-88,  125,  129-131. 
Writing- tablets,  39,  40. 

Year,  division  of,  132-134,  163. 


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